


The Light Dragons (Dragons: Race to the Edge Fanfic)

by VikaFromTheMoon



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-08-10 09:49:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 35,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20133457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VikaFromTheMoon/pseuds/VikaFromTheMoon
Summary: On the island of Telemik (Tell-e-meek) on the outskirts of Berk, legend has it there is a deadly Light Dragon who has the power to plunge all of Berk and the world into eternal darkness. When the Berserkers strike, they capture the Light Dragon and turn it into one of them as an attempt to eliminate Hiccup once and for all. Together, Hiccup and Astrid, the two heroes, must find the missing crystals of the Light Dragon’s body and return the beast to its senses before the Berserkers claim victory and the world changes forever. If not successful, Hiccup will lose everyone and everything he loves, and a dark cloud will send the whole island into a future they never expected.





	1. Good Morning, Berk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anyone who is a How to Train Your Dragon fan!](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Anyone+who+is+a+How+to+Train+Your+Dragon+fan%21).

> In order to understand this story in its entirety, you have to have a vast understanding of the How to Train Your Dragon universe as well as the Race to the Edge TV series on Netflix. The Light Dragon takes you on a journey to the darker, more serious levels of the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, for Hiccup faces his most dangerous threat yet.  
Fun Fact: This fanfic is based off Schubert's “Erlkönig” (for anyone who is a music freak).
> 
> Please enjoy!

A comfortable, cool breeze washed over the medieval Viking settlement of Berk. Under the rays of the Sun, citizens stepped out of their huts and stretched under it. Ah, now that felt good. The Sun glowed especially bright today. It told the settlement that another exciting, beautiful day was about to unfold. When citizens loosened their muscles, they took their dragons and headed towards the dining hall for breakfast. These people lived peacefully amongst the dragons, and it was all because of one boy…Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III (long names like these were common in the Middle Ages).  
Toothless, Hiccup’s best dragon friend, woke up first in his hut. He stood up on his mat and yawned while stretching like a dog. He was more a mix of a dog and cat rather than a dragon, but that was why Hiccup loved him so much. In his bed, the eighteen-year-old son of Chief Stoick rested on his side and breathed silently. His mechanical, prosthetic leg sat next to one of the bed’s legs. Hiccup lost the lower half of his leg in a battle with a huge dragon (the Red Death) when he first met Toothless three years ago, but finally he was used to it. Toothless, after stretching, trotted to him and licked his face.  
Immediately waking up, Hiccup yelled, “Ahh!” and pushed him off, “Come on, Toothless! I just had the most wonderful dream!” Which he did. Hiccup thought the dream was a call from the gods – from Valhalla. He dreamt he was walking through a beautiful forest, and he met a new dragon – a light dragon to be exact. It had two, different-colored eyes and a crystalized body. Something exciting was about to happen. Hiccup could not wait to go exploring today. Maybe he could even skip out on breakfast. Who needed breakfast when there was a completely new dragon species to discover? With this in mind, the young man hopped out of bed and picked up his prosthetic leg. As soon as he had it on, he stood up and smiled at Toothless, “Toothless, I think there is a huge adventure waiting for us today!”  
Just at the word “adventure,” Toothless grinned and leaped into his arms. His tail started to wag. Similar to Hiccup, he was missing half of his tailfin. Three years ago, when Hiccup shot him down during a dragon raid, he injured him but as the two befriended each other, Hiccup made Toothless new fins every month to replace the one he was missing. This was so he could fly. In a way, both the boy and dragon were dealing with physical injuries, but that was another reason why they were so close. In addition, just like Hiccup, Toothless loved exploring new islands and dragon species. Hiccup rubbed his face and gently pushed the dragon back down on the ground, “Yeah, boy. I’m excited too.”  
“Hiccup!” a young, female voice suddenly shouted from the other side of the hut’s door. It flew open, and Hiccup’s friend, Astrid, appeared in the doorway. She was a headstrong, young woman who matched the typical Norwegian woman of Medieval Norway. She threw herself into battles with hope she would impress the gods and show the citizens of Berk that she was capable of anything. As Astrid hurried to Hiccup and Toothless, she announced, “I have an idea for our adventure today!”  
Hiccup smiled and said, “Well, well, well. Someone is excited.”  
“Duh.” Astrid spoke, and she jumped up and down while clapping her hands, “I had an amazing dream last night! The gods are telling me there is a new dragon species to discover!”  
“Really?” asked Hiccup, “I had a dream like that too. It was a light dragon I saw.”  
“Really? Me too!”  
“Really?”  
Astrid nodded, “Yeah! It was incredible, Hiccup! I saw the dragon in a beautiful forest.”  
“That was my dream too!” Hiccup was amazed, “Why do you think we had the same dream, Astrid?”  
“Hm.” Astrid leaned to one side and gripped her chin to think. While she did this, Toothless rested his chin on Hiccup’s shoulder. Finally, Astrid lowered her hand and answered, “Maybe we should ask the others about it.”  
Hiccup immediately gave in to her suggestion, “Yeah. Maybe we should.” Toothless rolled his eyes and removed his head. He sometimes felt like Hiccup relied too much on Astrid.  
“What?! Light dragon?!” Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs, the rest of Hiccup’s friends, asked at the same time at breakfast that morning.  
Hiccup nodded, “Yes. Both Astrid and I saw it in our dreams last night.”  
“Aw.” Snotlout groaned, “Why do you guys always get the cool dreams? The only dreams I get are me staring into the blank unknown.”  
Tuffnut grabbed hold of Astrid and Hiccup’s heads and pulled them close to his chest, “Because they are meant for each other. Aren’t you guys?” The two teens blushed. Here Tuffnut went again. Hiccup choked on his water and spat it out. Him and Astrid? Yuck. They were nothing alike. Hiccup had a coughing attack, and it took a few minutes for it to calm down.  
When finally it did, he rested his palm over his chest and laughed, “Oh, you’re hilarious, Tuffnut!”  
Tuffnut shrugged, “What? I’m serious.”  
“Anyway.” Astrid said, and she cleared her throat, “Hiccup and I were going to head out today to look for the Light Dragon.” Hiccup could tell Tuffnut also put her in an uncomfortable spot. At least he wasn’t the only one.  
Snotlout’s eyes widened, “What?! You’re just going to fly out and look for dragons without even inviting us?”  
“Well.” Hiccup stuttered, “Astrid and I thought you guys were getting tired of spending day after day looking for dragons.”  
“Are you kidding?” Fishlegs asked.  
“We love it!” he, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout spoke at the same time.  
Tuffnut chuckled and flashed his eyelashes at Hiccup and Astrid, “I think Hiccup and Astrid just want to spend some time ‘alone.’” Uncrossing his arms, he bent his index and middle fingers of both hands to emphasize on the word “alone.”  
Luckily, another voice from behind interrupted the awkward moment, “What are you kids talking about over here?” It was Gobber, and next to him was Stoick the Vast, Hiccup’s father, “Are you heading out to look for more dragons?”  
“Is that okay?” Hiccup wanted to know, but he shivered when he got a sudden chill.  
Stoick sighed, “Well, I did want you to help me with a few things around the island today, Hiccup, to start your chief training.” Hiccup froze, and his face turned white. Chief?!  
Astrid was immediately up for the idea, “Chief?! Oh, my gods, Hiccup!” and she punched his arm, “You’re going to become chief soon!”  
Hiccup flinched and grabbed hold of his throbbing arm, “Ow!” He felt like Astrid’s punches had gotten stronger lately. “Can we just talk about this, Dad?” he asked Stoick, “Somewhere out there is a Light Dragon just waiting to be tamed.” As soon as he said “Light Dragon,” Stoick’s eyes widened,  
“Light Dragon?” and he glanced at Gobber.  
“Sure.” Hiccup nervously spoke, and he leaned back in his chair, “Astrid and I both had a dream about it last night.”  
Again, Stoick’s eyes widened, and he gasped. “The two heroes,” he mumbled under his breath. Two heroes? What was he talking about?  
“Um.” Hiccup continued, “Should I be worried because you’re acting very strange, Dad.” He leaned back further in his chair, but this caused the legs to slip out from under him, and the young man tumbled to the ground on his back. SPLAT! CRASH!  
Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, and Snotlout burst out laughing, but Astrid yelled, “Hiccup!” She fell to her knees next to the fallen boy and grabbed his arm, “Are you okay?”  
“Yeah.” Hiccup admitted, although his butt was a little sore. Astrid helped him to his feet. With his prosthetic leg, it was sometimes difficult for Hiccup to stand up because it slipped a lot. Welcome to medieval technology.  
Stoick’s face turned stern, and he gestured for the six teens to follow him and Gobber, “Come with us, Hiccup, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut. I want to share something with you.”  
“Um, okay,” the teens spoke, and the remaining four sitting in their seats stood up. A few trickles of sweat ran down Hiccup’s temples. He had no idea why he suddenly felt so nervous and clammy. What were Gobber and his father getting ready to tell him and his friends?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All rights reserved: Please do not plagiarize this story. I don’t want to have to turn on my bad side. Just FYI.


	2. Hiccup's Discovery

Stoick and Gobber took the teens deep in Berk’s forest, and their dragons followed from behind: Toothless, Barf and Belch, Hookfang, Meatlug, and Stormfly.  
Hiccup observed his surroundings and asked, “Um, Dad, exactly where are you and Gobber taking us?”  
“To one of Berk’s most secluded areas,” was Stoick’s answer, “If we’re going to talk about the Light Dragon, then it’s best for all of us.” Just that alone made the teens even more curious. Who was the Light Dragon?  
Unfortunately, before they could reach too far into their thoughts, though, Hiccup’s good leg suddenly crashed into a small hole, which forced him to stop. “Whoa!” he yelled, and he peered down on the hole. Hearing the sound, everyone else stopped too, and his or her eyes landed on the boy. Then things went from zero to one-hundred extremely fast. When Hiccup tried freeing his leg…CRACK!  
The ground suddenly gave way under him, and he fell into an even bigger hole! “Hiccup!” Astrid yelled, and she held out her hand.  
Stoick mimicked her, “Hiccup!”  
Tuffnut and Ruffnut merely chuckled, and they crossed their arms. “This is the best thing I’ve seen all day.” Tuffnut joked, and he lightly punched Ruffnut’s arm.  
Hiccup tried to grab the wall of the hole but failed. “Toothless!” he cried out. He did not have to ask Toothless twice. The dragon folded his wings and dove into the hole after him, but he and Hiccup landed in two different tunnels and started to slide. Toothless roared, but he lost Hiccup’s voice. The wall in between the two tunnels cut if off. Hiccup crashed down hard on his back, but the force of the collision caused him to lose his prosthetic leg. “Toothless!” he shouted again, but Toothless didn’t answer. The young man ended up in a single huge cave next to an underground river. He hit his head and arm in the process and just that alone caused him to lose consciousness when he landed. Hiccup rested on his back with his right arm stretched across his belly and his head tilted to the left. Not only that, he no longer had his metal leg to help him walk. Strangely, though, not far from him was a small shimmer. It came from behind a rock, and it flashed at the unconscious boy. What was it? Whatever it was, it seemed to call to him.  
Toothless landed in another section of the cave, but he wrapped his wings around his body to cushion the impact. Standing up, he shook out his head, and his pupils widened with worry. Where was he? Where was Hiccup? They usually always managed to catch each other, but the two tunnels totally messed them up. Toothless called for his friend, but he did not answer back. Without Hiccup on his back, he could not fly back up the hole and lead the remaining teens, Gobber, and Stoick down here. All Toothless could do was just explore the cave. He put his nose to the ground like a dog and tried to track down Hiccup’s scent. He caught it, and as soon as he did, his ears stood straight up. Hiccup was close. He just had to find him.  
Above the underground cave, Astrid was totally freaking out.  
She again called, “Hiccup!” and tried to jump into the hole after he and Toothless, but Gobber grabbed her arm,  
“Astrid, no!” He pulled her back and set the panicking girl down on the ground. She tried to break free from Gobber’s grip, but he held her tightly. “Please,” he begged, and he rested his palm on Astrid’s chest, “Stoick and I did not realize that the trap was still active all these years later.”  
“So that was a trap?!” Astrid cried out, and Stoick nodded,  
“Yes. Gobber and I put it there with hope nobody would ever reach the secret chamber, but for all the people to step in it, it had to be my son.”  
“Um, yeah,” spoke Snotlout, and he rubbed his chin, “Last I checked, isn’t Hiccup ‘always’ getting in danger?”  
Astrid glared at him, “This isn’t funny, Snotlout!” and she focused her attention on Stoick, “Please, sir, we have to find a way down there.”  
“Don’t worry, Astrid.” Stoick took her shoulder and gave it a pat, “We will. At least Hiccup and Toothless went in the right direction. Now come. We must move quickly.”  
The underground river, even though quite rough, it gave a sense of peace and serenity to the mysterious cave. Hiccup stirred from where he rested. Finally, he regained consciousness. However, the fall knocked the breaths clean out of him, and he coughed as an attempt to get them back.  
When he had them again, he slowly sat up and shook out his head. “Well,” he mumbled, “that was an adventure,” and he massaged his arm. Other than a slight headache and sore arm, he was okay. All Niflheim, though, broke loose when he moved his eyes down to his legs, and he saw he was not all there. Where was his peg leg? “Oh great,” he continued, “Just what I want. Toothless? Toothless, are you there?” He normally always carried a spare leg in the satchel he kept on Toothless’s saddle, but how could he access it when his dragon was nowhere in sight? Sigh, it was times like these the young man wished he had both legs. He wished he never lost one in the first place. As Hiccup searched his surroundings, his eyes moved over to the rock where the shimmer came from. It sparkled again and temporarily blinded him. “Whoa!” he yelled, and he held his hand up to his face, “What’s that? That’s bright!” Suddenly, the light exploded, and hundreds of tiny little shimmers appeared on every wall in the room! Hiccup’s head moved quickly as he tried to take it all in. All these little shimmers reminded him of the Dragon Eye, which he kept in his hut that day. Perhaps they showed him a map just like the mysterious, crystal-shaped artifact. Before he could jump to conclusions, though, he had to figure out what was hiding behind that rock. Was it the Light Dragon? What was it? There was only one way to find out.  
Hiccup crawled towards the rock and continued to examine the many shimmers that refused to leave the walls alone. Resting one hand on it, he took a deep breath and cleared his head. He didn’t know what to expect. Once again, his hands grew clammy, and sweat trickled down his temples. Why did he feel so nervous? It had to be because he was all alone deep in the underground without his dragon to comfort him. When he finally built up his confidence, he nodded and peered behind the rock.  
His green eyes widened, and he yelled, “Whoa!” Sitting directly in front of him and behind the rock was a cluster of small, light yellow crystals.  
Hiccup had no words for his discovery. He literally just found a cluster of crystals! He was rich! Nevertheless, what was it doing all the way down here? Sure enough, the crystals were the source behind the many shimmering dots dancing on the cave’s walls. Hiccup dragged his sore body behind the rock and stared at the crystals. The bright light shimmered in his eyes, and he nervously picked them up. Other than the Dragon Eye, he had never discovered something as fascinating as this. Hiccup crossed his legs and peered up to the shimmering walls. His curiosity had hit a homerun. The young man adjusted a few of the crystals in the cluster, and as soon as he did, the dots on the walls changed all together, very similar to the Dragon Eye.  
The images moved up to the ceiling and started to dance in circles. “Whoa!” Hiccup yelled, “Wicked!” He forgot all about his missing peg leg when he saw this. To get a closer look at the images, he tried to stand up, but as soon as he did, he fell back on the rock. The young man groaned and set his discovery down. “Stupid leg,” he mumbled, and he grabbed hold of the stump of his leg. Where was Toothless and his friends when he needed them? Well, until they got there – that was IF they got there, he was stuck, and Hiccup wasn’t pleased by this. “Toothless, please,” he begged under his breath, and he propped his back up against the rock. The cluster of crystals rested in his lap.  
Hiccup waited for a good twenty minutes, but nobody came for him. Staring at the crystals eventually made him drowsy, and he yawned. Before he knew it, he slipped into sleep, and while he napped, he dreamed.  
There he was. Hiccup was back in the beautiful forest where he and Astrid both saw the Light Dragon in their dreams from overnight. As he made his way through a cluster of gorgeous, green ferns, he peered up to the silent treetops and listened to the chirping bugs. Chirp. Chirp. Chirp. It felt serene. This was the same thing Hiccup felt overnight. Serenity, peace, and prosperity. It felt like nothing could go wrong. The rays of the Sun bled through the treetops and scanned the forest’s floor like a modern-day lighthouse. Hiccup heard something behind him. It sounded like a low growl, and he slowly turned in the direction it came from. In his left hand, he held the Dragon Eye.  
It tingled under his touch and suddenly pulled the young man in the direction of some tightly clustered, enormous trees. “What’s going on?” he asked himself while this phenomenon took place. Before he knew it, though, the serenity, peace, and prosperity melted away. In their place, he heard CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! The tightly clustered trees one at a time crashed to the forest floor, and the growl grew louder. An insanely bright light flashed in Hiccup’s face, FLASH, and he yelled. It blinded him. The light was the same color as the small cluster of yellow crystals he found. He barely opened one eye, but what he saw almost caused him to have a heart attack. The familiar, different-colored eyes he saw in his first dream reappeared, and a huge figure hovered in front of him. The Light Dragon. However, because it was so bright, Hiccup could not get a good look at it. All he saw were its eyes. Only a short moment later, the dragon let out a horribly loud roar that sounded like metal scraping together! SCREEEEEEECH!! While Hiccup knew what metal sounded like (he owned a metal leg for Norse Sakes), he never heard it scrape this loud before, and it terrified him. The young man closed both eyes again and slapped his hands over his ears. SCREEEEEEEEEECH!!! Now the dragon screeched louder and longer. Hiccup’s whole head spun due to the noise, and he fell to his knees. “STOP!” he begged, “STOP!! MY EARS! I DON’T WANT TO LOSE THEM TOO!” As the moment passed, the Light Dragon only roared louder, louder, longer, and longer until finally…!


	3. Nervous Breakdown

A new dragon roared, but this one sounded friendlier…familiar. Toothless.  
Toothless finally found Hiccup, and he roared in his face to pull him out of his nightmare. “Stop! Stop!” the young man screamed. Even outside the dream world, he had his hands to his ears, and he shook uncomfortably on his rock. Toothless’s eyes widened with worry, and he roared again. What on Earth was Hiccup dreaming about? Whatever it was, it did not sound pleasant. He pushed his forehead up against his friend’s head and begged him to escape his living Niflheim. He hated to see him so scared. Eventually, Toothless’s gentle touch woke him up, and he gasped.  
Toothless jumped and backed away from him. “Toothless!” Hiccup yelled, still gasping, “Toothless! What are you doing here?!” He sweated like a fountain, and a few warm tears dripped down his cheeks, “WHAT WAS THAT?!” The young man’s legs shook like crazy, and he buried his face in his hands. Toothless whined and approached him again. His ears stood straight up, and he plopped down next to his friend. The dragon stretched his neck and head over his body, and Hiccup grabbed him. “What’s happening to me, Toothless?” he sobbed, and he hugged his dragon close to him, “I thought the Light Dragon was friendly, but now I’m not sure.” Toothless let Hiccup cuddle him, at least until he calmed down. When his breathing finally slowed, and he wasn’t sweating as much, he pulled his head away from him. “Thanks, Toothless.” Hiccup told him, and he scratched the top of the dragon’s head, “I’m okay now.” Toothless hoped so. Hiccup still shivered a bit. His big, green eyes rolled down to the teen’s missing peg leg, and he sniffed the stump.  
Hiccup read the dragon’s mind and went ahead and answered his mental question, “It’s a long story, but hey. At least I have a spare.” Now that Toothless was here, he could finally pull it out. Hiccup undid the satchel on his dragon’s saddle and pulled out one of his spare legs. However, he paused a bit when he saw it. His eyes moved from it, down to the stump, and back up to the spare. Sighing, the young man followed through with his act. He pulled out the spare and tied it to the stump. Finally, finally he could walk again. He batted the metal part on the rocks a few times to test it and nodded. “Come on, Toothless,” he ordered, “Let’s find a way out of here.” However, when he turned around, no longer was Toothless standing there. Instead, his eyes caught the cluster of crystals Hiccup left next to the rock, and he curiously made his way to them. Once again, the many different shimmering dots danced on the walls. Tail wagging, Toothless jumped up on his hind legs and batted at the moving lights. Hiccup chuckled and came within reach of him, “I see you found the crystals I discovered, boy.” Leaning down, he picked up the cluster and held it out to his dragon so he could sniff it. Together, both Toothless and Hiccup looked up to the amazing view. “Hm.” Hiccup told himself, “I wonder.” Toothless glanced at him out the corner of his eye.  
Before Hiccup could reach too far in his thoughts, though, he suddenly heard,  
“Hiccup!” behind him. Astrid. She, Stoick, Gobber, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the dragons found their way into the underground chamber, and they hurried to the boy and dragon. Toothless leaped in front of the young man to protect him, but he calmed down when he recognized the visitors. A smile stretched across his face, and he trotted over to Barf and Belch, Meatlug, Stormfly, and Hookfang. In the meantime, the Vikings stopped in front of Hiccup and pounded him with questions. “Are you okay?” Astrid asked.  
“Do you need another leg?” Gobber wanted to know.  
“How did you and Toothless find each other?” Stoick asked in his typical, stern chief voice.  
“I have to say.” Ruffnut chuckled, “If it wasn’t for Tuff and I’s six senses, you would be trapped down here forever.”  
Snotlout slapped his hands to his cheeks, “So we’re all just going to gush over Hiccup here, and not even worry about little Snotlout who had to pull himself out of quicksand while everyone else took the fun way into this cave?”  
“Hey.” Fishlegs said, and he grabbed hold of Hiccup’s shoulder, “We have to protect our one-legged Vikings. Right, Hiccup?”  
“Sure,” was all Hiccup could say.  
Astrid crossed her arms and glared at him, “Why did you try to pull your leg out of that hole yourself? You never would have fallen down in the first place!”  
“Um, well technically.” Gobber nervously spoke, and he scratched his chin.  
“I don’t want to hear your opinion!” Astrid snapped, “We just need to plan better next time! No!” She held her hand up to Ruffnut and Tuffnut, “I’m not looking at you, Ruff and Tuff!”  
The twins groaned, “Aw,” and Ruffnut nudged Tuffnut, “And I just came up with a brilliant one. Death and destruction. It calls my name.” While the Vikings gained up on poor Hiccup, Toothless and his dragon friends growled friendlily and played with each other. He and Stormfly rushed around the room, and Hookfang, Meatlug, Barf and Belch called to them. Hiccup’s eyes moved from them to his friends, father, Gobber and back to them. Astrid continued to chew him out, the twins started to argue about who came up with the best destructive plans while Snotlout and Fishlegs hammered him with even more questions. Stoick started to give him a dumb lecture about what a chief does when he is in danger while Gobber continuously asked him if he needed a new leg. Eventually, the annoying noises faded away, and in their place came the familiar, metal screeching roar of the Light Dragon! SCREEEEEEECH!!  
Hiccup slapped his hands up against his ears and begged, “STOP! LEAVE ME ALONE!” He got a searing headache and fell to his knees. SCREEEEEEECH!! The Light Dragon refused. How much it enjoyed torturing the young man psychologically.  
At the sight of his son keeled over in pain, Stoick held his hand up to the Vikings and dragons, “Everybody, stop!” Immediately, everybody did, and Toothless seemed to gasp. He started towards Hiccup, but Stoick stopped him.  
He wanted to look at his son himself without the dragon getting in his way. “Hiccup!” he cried out, and he sunk to his knees next to him, “Are you okay, son?” Was he okay? What a dumb question. Obviously, Hiccup was not.  
He pressed his fingers up against his temples and shook his head. “AM I OKAY?!” he asked his father, “DO I LOOK OKAY?! MAKE IT STOP, DAD! MAKE IT STOP!” He grabbed Stoick’s shoulders and shook them like crazy.  
A question mark appeared over his father’s head, and he asked, “Make what stop?” Hiccup seemed to have a nervous breakdown. The stress. The Light Dragon. It was too much for him to handle. He was only eighteen years old for Norse Sakes! The young man leaped to his feet and left the comfort of his friends, father, and dragons.  
Toothless again tried to approach him, but Stoick pushed him back. “No, Toothless!” he snapped. He did not want the dragon to get involved with whatever was going on with his son. It was too dangerous. Hiccup picked up rocks and chucked them against the wall. SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!  
He banged his metal foot on the ground and yelled, “STOP! STOP! STOP!” repeatedly. No way. The Light Dragon was having too much fun. Hiccup’s friends, father, Gobber, and the dragons watched him terrified. What in the name of Thor was happening right now? Hiccup had never acted this way before. He continued to chuck rocks and bang his leg on the ground. One rock actually almost hit Fishlegs, and he yelled.  
Holding his hands up to the ceiling, he sprinted away from the crazy boy. “Hiccup, stop!” Astrid yelled. A few, warm tears ran down face. This was horrifying to watch.  
Snotlout crossed his arms and asked, “Do you think we should knock him out?”  
As soon as he suggested that, Ruffnut and Tuffnut chuckled. “Oh yeah, baby!” Ruffnut spoke, and she flexed her biceps, “I’ve always wanted to knock out that one-legged Viking!” Hearing them, Stoick focused his attention on them instead of his son.  
He nodded, “It’s for his own good.”  
“Yeah!” the twins spoke at the same time, “It’s time to play Bat the Nut with Hiccup!” Astrid hid behind her hands. She couldn’t bear to watch this, but Stoick was right. He was chief after all. They had to knock Hiccup out. That would bring him back to his senses, hopefully. Together, Ruff and Tuff approached the rampaging boy and waited for the perfect opportunity. Ruffnut delivered the first punch. PUNCH!  
Hiccup stumbled back, but Ruffnut’s blow did not knock him out. “You call that a punch?” Tuffnut asked his sister, “I’ll show you how it’s done!” and he delivered the second punch. PUNCH! His was the one that knocked Hiccup unconscious. The young man fell onto his front, SPLAT, and laid motionless on the cavern floor. “Ha! Ha!” Tuffnut cheered, and he performed a victory dance, “Victory is mine!”  
“Showoff.” Ruffnut groaned, and she crossed her arms, “I can do better.”  
Toothless roared and pushed past Stoick. He hurried to his friend and licked his face.  
Astrid joined him and gasped when she saw how motionless Hiccup was, “Is he okay?”  
“Oh, he’ll be fine.” Gobber spoke, and he waved his hand, “The twins aren’t that strong, so he shouldn’t be out for long.”  
“Hey!” Tuffnut snapped, and he placed his hands on his hips, “We’re standing right here!”  
“Yes, I know.” Gobber said with a smirk.  
Stoick fell to his knees next to his son and placed his hands on his back, “We need to hurry. The secret chamber isn’t that far from here, and it is imperative that you teens learn about the Light Dragon soon.” With that, he stood up and tossed Hiccup over his shoulder.  
Astrid pointed at him, “But what about Hiccup? Why did he suddenly turn berserk? I’ve never seen him like that before!”  
“None of us have.” Stoick corrected, “That’s why you need to learn about the Light Dragon. Only then will we be able to figure out what truly is wrong with my son.” Astrid wondered what he meant by that. What did the Light Dragon have to do with Hiccup’s unusual behavior?  
Next to her, Fishlegs turned all smart as he usually did in stressful situations, “This is weird. Hiccup was acting fine yesterday. Even at breakfast earlier, he showed no signs of all this berserk behavior. Something must have happened to him and Toothless when they fell down here.” Toothless softly growled and crouched down towards the ground as images of Hiccup struggling to wake up from his nightmare reentered his brain. Oh, he felt so guilty. He didn’t pull his friend out of Niflheim in time. Something was tormenting him. He just felt it.  
Stoick ignored the dragon’s behavior, and his eyes landed on a bruise that was forming on Hiccup’s temple where he hit his head when he landed in the cave, “Well, there is a bruise on his temple.”  
“So something did happen.” Astrid concluded, “All our annoying noises must have triggered a massive headache.”  
“Hey!” Ruffnut snapped, “Who are you calling annoying?”  
“All of us.” Astrid answered, “It’s our fault.” She gloomily dropped her arms, “We pushed him while he was still recovering from that fall.”  
Stoick glanced at her and said, “It’s not just us. Something else is going on, and I think I know what.”


	4. The Chamber of Emptiness

Stoick led Gobber, Astrid, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the dragons down a path that took them further down the underground river. He led the way, with Hiccup still over his shoulder, while Toothless was the caboose. He walked with his head lowered and ears down. In the three years he’s known Hiccup and saved him from devastating dangers, he has never felt this guilty before. Who knew a dragon could feel such things?  
An hour into the underground expedition, Stoick paused on his tracks and looked up, “Here we are.”  
Directly in front of the Vikings and dragons were two huge, stone doors that had torches on either side of them. Algae covered them as well as moss and cobwebs. The torches were unlit. It obviously had been a long time since someone came down here.  
The teen’s jaws dropped to the ground at the sight of the old, run-down doors, and Snotlout let out a little high-pitched, “Eee!” He brought his fingers to his lips and chewed his nails, “So cool.”  
“Welcome, Dragon Riders,” Stoick announced, “to the secret chamber.”  
While the Vikings and dragons admired the doors, Hiccup stirred on his father’s shoulder and slowly opened his eyes. He groaned and reached for his head. Astrid noticed this and gasped.  
She pointed at her friend and told Stoick, “Chief! He’s waking up!”  
“Ah, perfect,” was Stoick’s answer. This was the first thing he did instead of asking his son if he was all right. He merely took him off his shoulder and dropped him to the ground behind him. Plop! Hiccup landed on his butt and yelled. Next, Stoick approached the doors and worked together with Gobber to push them open. In the meantime, Toothless’s spirit immediately brightened at the sight of his friend conscious again. His tail wagged like crazy, and he hurried to him.  
Hiccup smiled feebly and hugged his muzzle close to his chest, “Hey, boy. I missed you.” Astrid laughed and breathed a sigh of relief.  
She fell to her knees next to Hiccup and took his shoulder, “Oh, thank Thor! Are you okay?”  
Hiccup glanced at her next and set his hand on top of hers, “I am now. Thank you, Astrid.” He definitely looked like he was back to his normal self.  
Ruffnut groaned playfully and joked, “Aw man. I liked him better when he was unconscious.” Although, deep inside, she and Tuffnut were happy to see Hiccup awake and no longer suffering from a nervous breakdown. She had to admit, that breakdown actually made her and Tuff uncomfortable, and they were all about death and destruction. That was why it was so satisfying to knock Hiccup out. She and Tuff never wanted to see him like that again.  
Hiccup noticed the worry in everybody’s faces and questioned, “Um, why are you all looking at me like that? Uh oh. What happened?”  
Astrid sniffed and rubbed the side of her eye, “You don’t want to know.”  
“Um, yes I do. I very much want to know.” So Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut sat down with the confused, young man and explained what happened when they tried to pull him into a conversation. As the story progressed, Hiccup’s eyes grew wider and wider until he finally asked, “Wait a minute! I went berserk?!”  
“It looked that way, yes.” Astrid answered, “Don’t you remember?”  
“No.” Hiccup shook his head, “All I remember is screeching.”  
“Screeching?” The panic in Astrid’s voice increased, “What do you mean ‘screeching?’”  
“It’s hard to explain.”  
“Hiccup.” Astrid crossed her arms, “Are you feeling all right?”  
“I feel fine. Please don’t worry.” Astrid was not convinced. After Hiccup’s berserk episode, she knew something was going on. Gobber noticed the tension between the two friends and came between them.  
He pulled them apart and said, “Come on, now. Let’s save it for the honeymoon. Welcome back, Hiccster. Why don’t you and Toothless lead the way into the secret chamber?”  
“‘Hiccster?’” Hiccup asked with a very unamused look on his face, and he threw his arms, “Why me?”  
Suddenly, Stoick the Vast pulled him to his feet, and he shoved an unlit torch in his son’s tummy, “Take this.”  
“What secret chamber?” the young man asked, and Stoick pointed to the doors behind them, “That one. Duh.”  
“And of course.” Tuffnut complained, “Young Hiccup has the honor of stepping into Valhalla first.”  
Hiccup’s eyes landed on the chamber doors, and he shivered, “Um, I don’t know if that’s Valhalla, Tuff.” He lowered the torch and peered into Stoick’s face, “Why do I feel like I’m the guinea pig here?” At the same time, the Vikings glared at him and crossed their arms.  
“Okay! Okay!” Hiccup waved his hands and backed up to the chamber doors, “I’ll go in.” Toothless grumbled and shook his head. Before long, Hiccup glanced at him and held the torch up to his face, “All right, Toothless. Slow flame.” Toothless obeyed. He spit out a small Plasma Cannon and lit the torch on fire. Hiccup held it up to his face to examine it, “Perfect. Thanks bud.” Toothless looked quite proud of himself. The remaining Vikings and dragons scrunched closely together and stopped only a few feet behind Hiccup. Astrid wanted to join him, but with Stoick right there, that was not going to happen. Just like Toothless, he felt that Hiccup relied too much on her, and he wanted him to try something himself. Before stepping into the chamber, Hiccup leaned down and picked up a rusty, old shield, which he retrieved from a skeleton behind one of the huge doors. Inhaling a breath of air, he held the shield in his left hand and the torch in his right. “I’m going in,” he spoke in a stern voice, and just like that, he and Toothless stepped into the gates of Niflheim.  
Toothless stayed alert. He moved his ears back and forth and constantly checked his surroundings. The first part of the chamber was nothing more than a small, narrow hallway that had lines of torches on the walls as well as designs that showed Vikings battling dragons. Hiccup held his shield behind him and followed the light of the torch. This place gave him the creeps, but he had to stay strong. He had his dragon with him. That was all that mattered.  
As the two marched on, the young man asked himself, “What is this place?” but as soon as he said that, he walked right into a mass of cobwebs. “Ahh! Yuck!” he yelled, and he ripped the webs off him.  
“Hiccup! Are you and Toothless all right?” he heard Astrid ask from the chamber’s entrance.  
“Yeah!” Hiccup called back, “Just walked into some cobwebs!”  
Where Astrid, the other Vikings, and dragons stood, Astrid glanced at Stoick and said,  
“I have to go in after him.”  
“No. Not yet,” he sternly told her, “Hiccup has to learn that he does not need somebody to hold his hand all the time. If he’s going to become chief, then that is a total basic.”  
“What a minute.” This was spoke from Fishlegs, and he scratched his chin, “Are you saying that sending Hiccup and Toothless into the chamber first all revolves around a trial for Hiccup?”  
“Yes.” Stoick nodded, “Gobber and me talked about it when we came to get you guys at breakfast. Now let’s see how far my son gets without calling for help.”  
Toothless helped Hiccup pull off the cobwebs he stepped through, and his friend thanked him. Afterwards, they went on their merry way, but this did not last for long. The Light Dragon got in Hiccup’s head again. When he and Toothless neared the end of the first tunnel, suddenly, the torches surrounding them lit up, as if by magic. Actually, it was more Hiccup saw the torches light up, but Toothless did not. What was going on here was a mirage.  
In reality, the torches did not light up; the Light Dragon just created the image and stuck it in Hiccup’s brain. “What’s going on?” he asked, and he froze on his tracks, “Toothless?” Nervous, he backed up to his dragon and bumped up against his neck, “Why did these torches suddenly light up?”  
“Hm?” Toothless seemed to growl, and he tilted his head to the left. What was Hiccup talking about? It was still dark like crazy in the tunnel. Unlike his friend, the dragon was not stuck in a mirage. He double-checked the area, and sure enough, the only light came from the boy’s torch. In Hiccup’s mind, though, all the torches were on now and waving like crazy. Then he heard it. The Light Dragon. The fearsome growl came from the end of the tunnel, and the young man held his torch out further to get a better look. Outside of the mirage, Toothless noticed he was staring into outer space, and just in case there was danger, he crouched down and growled himself. In Hiccup’s head, he heard shuffling coming from the end of the tunnel, and the heterochromic eyes of the Light Dragon appeared in the darkness. In reality, there was nothing there. The chamber was still the Chamber of Emptiness. This was not the case for Hiccup, though. The Light Dragon had total control of his mind, and it was all because of the bruise he received on his head when he fell down the hole. Thanks to it, that section of his head was now vulnerable to the beast’s control.  
Before Hiccup knew it, the Light Dragon’s eyes shimmered, and it roared its metal screeching roar.  
SCREEEEEEECH!! “AHH! NOT AGAIN!” he yelled. Though this was merely a mirage, it felt so real. The Light Dragon shot a fireball right towards Hiccup and Toothless, and Hiccup gasped at the sight of it, “Toothless, get down!” Before Toothless could react, his friend pulled him to the ground. He had no idea what was going on. What did Hiccup see? He saw nothing. The Light Dragon put all its energy into the mirage, with hope the torture would grow worse. Hiccup did not know its blind spot yet. The Light Dragon hoped to drag him into its trap before he figured it out. If there were any dragons in the world he could not tame, they would include this one. As quick as a flash, the young man held his shield in front of him and waited for the beast’s inferno.  
Only a minute later, something else joined its different-colored eyes. A bright, crystalized foot stomped the ground and caused it to shake. The shaking knocked Hiccup down, but in reality, he just tripped over his own foot.  
He stared at the beast, horrified, and whimpered, “Oh, Thor.” Soon after the dragon’s foot came into the scene, it pulled the rest of its body out. Unfortunately, once again, Hiccup could not get a good look at it; it glowed too brightly. Once again, he went into a state of mental insanity. Hiccup thought the dragon was really in the room with him and Toothless when it was not.  
He leaped to his feet and yelled, “Run, Toothless! It’s back!” Poor Toothless was so confused, but he also feared for his friend because of his insane behavior. Hiccup ran his fastest towards the chamber’s entrance, but his metal leg slammed into a rock, and this bent it. Great. That was two legs in one day. The young man fell to the ground, CRASH, and landed on his front. He closed his eyes against the Light Dragon’s glare and covered his head when it stormed towards him. At least, this was the message the mirage gave him. “HELP!” he screamed, “IT’S GOING TO SCORCH MY OTHER LEG!”  
“Hiccup!” a voice shouted at him on the other side of the mirage, “Wake up! Come back to us!” It was Astrid, and her touch pushed Hiccup out of his traumatizing mirage before it could get out of hand. The Light Dragon vanished. The only thing the young man was looking at now were the glaring faces of the Vikings and dragons. Even Toothless glared at him. Astrid, who swiped his shield from him, threw it to the ground, and she yelled at her friend, “What is wrong with you?! We can’t even leave you alone for five minutes without you having a nervous breakdown!”  
“Nervous breakdown?” Hiccup asked, “What do you mean ‘nervous breakdown?’”  
“You know perfectly well what I mean! We thought a dragon attacked you, but when we came to help, there was just a skinny, one-legged boy performing a ridiculous dance move on the ground!”  
“But there was a dragon!” Hiccup argued, “I saw it! It won’t leave me alone!”  
“Aw, shut up, Hiccup! Stoick is right! You cannot even survive one simple task without relying on Toothless or me! That’s it!” Astrid stood up straight and put her foot down, “If you’re going to lose your mind in this secret chamber, then we’re going to leave you behind!” Behind? She didn’t mean that…right? She did.  
Hiccup refused, “No,” and he used Toothless to help him stand, “I’m not going to let you, the others, and the dragons have all the fun. Danger is my middle name.”  
It was here he noticed the worry in Astrid’s eyes, “Face it, Hiccup. Something is wrong with you. We’re going to take you to Gothi as soon as we’re done down here.” Gothi was the name of the village Elder and Healer. Since Hiccup and his friends started looking for new dragon species, they now were regular clients. Even though Astrid had a point, Hiccup still refused to let her, the others, and the dragons take advantage of him.  
He placed his hands on his hips and asked, “Last I checked, Astrid didn’t Dad say that you and I are the two heroes? Therefore, I think it’s necessary that I come with you.”  
Astrid groaned and puffed out her cheeks, “Fine.” She narrowed her eyebrows and poked Hiccup’s shoulder, “But you better not go insane again.”  
As soon as she said that, Hiccup cracked a small smile and cheered, “Yes!” but then he lost his smile, “But first, I need a new leg.” For the second time, he flipped up the top of Toothless’s saddlebag and pulled out his second spare leg, which he switched out with the bent one. Terrific. The last time he lost two spare legs in one day was when Barf and Belch became indebted to him and Toothless when they saved them from a deadly avalanche. While Hiccup worked, his eyes landed on the small cluster of light yellow crystals he found. He put them in the bag so he wouldn’t lose them. Hiccup planned to use the crystals and the Dragon Eye that night to see if he could uncover a new map. If he found one, then he would share his discovery with his friends and father. Until then, he wanted to keep it a secret. This was typical of him. However, what was waiting for the Riders deep in the chamber? Why was it such a big deal?  
Hiccup and Astrid wondered if what Stoick and Gobber were about to tell them would finally help them understand what Stoick meant by, “The two heroes.”


	5. The Story of the Light Dragon

“Sweet! This place is epic!” Snotlout shouted only thirty minutes later, “I think I’m going to cry.” He rubbed his eye and grabbed hold of Fishleg’s tunic where he blew his nose in it.  
“Ugh!” Fishlegs yelled, “What’d you do that for?” He pulled his tunic free and glared at Snotlout. He merely shrugged his shoulders and chuckled nervously. Although, he did have a point. The room did look amazing. Instead of the Chamber of Emptiness, they now stood in the Chamber of Mystery. It looked like the ruins of an old castle. The architecture was amazing. Rows of huge, stone pillars held up the ceiling, and a mighty Viking statue sat on a platform in front of the group. To the left of the statue and pillars and further down the chamber was a staircase. The staircase surrounded what looked like a fountain. The statue on the fountain depicted a huge dragon, and the fountain’s water shone an unusual blue color. There were only a few lit torches in the room. Most of the light came from the fountain’s water.  
Amazed, Hiccup’s jaw dropped to the ground, and he slowly approached Stoick and Gobber. “Dad,” he asked, “What is this place?”  
Stoick let out a huge, hearty laugh and put his arm around his son’s shoulders, “I’m glad you asked. Say hello, son to our ancestors. This chamber is where Berk first started.”  
“Really?”  
“Yes, son. This is our past, present, and future.”  
“Wow.” Along with Gobber and Stoick, Hiccup examined the amazing room up and down, “I never knew a place like this existed so close to our village.” Just being in a place this vast and mighty, the dragons roared with delight. Meatlug, Hookfang, Stormfly, and Barf and Belch zoomed by their rider’s heads and glided around the chamber. Down below, Toothless sat like a dog and watched them upsettingly. Hiccup noticed his distress and asked, “Do you want me to take you up there, bud?” Just at the sound of “flight,” Toothless shuffled excitedly and smiled at him. He turned his back to Hiccup and flapped his back spikes at him. The young man laughed, “All right, boy,” and he climbed up on his neck into his saddle. Hiccup stuck his feet in the stirrups and urged his dragon upward, “Then we’re off!” Toothless stood up tall and proud and opened his massive wings.  
He gave them a flap and shot into the sky where he joined the other dragons. “And twas.” Tuffnut spoke as he watched them, “He leaves us behind. What a sad day. Right, Snotlout?” Snotlout, though, was no longer with the group.  
They found him in front of the mighty Viking statue, and he tried to mimic its gesture. “Beware, Berk!” he shouted, and a huge smile stretched across his face, “Because I am the only Viking this island needs! Thor Snotlout doesn’t mess around!”  
“Thor Snotlout?” Ruffnut asked him, “That is the stupidest name I’ve ever heard.”  
“It’s nowhere near as good as Thorstonton!” admitted Tuffnut, and he held his finger up to the ceiling, “From this point on, this chamber shall be known as Thorstonton II!” As soon as he announced that, he looked up to Hiccup and Toothless and called to Hiccup, “Hey! Table boy! Come down and shine my shoes!”  
Hiccup heard him and pulled Toothless to a halt, “Table boy? Oooh! We talked about this, Tuff!” With that, he clenched his fist and punched Toothless’s saddle, “I am no one’s table boy! Just like Dragon’s Edge, we’re going to split this chamber up among all of us!” As he said that, images of that terrible time when the twins claimed Dragon’s Edge their one and only Thorstonton flashed through his brain. Hiccup shivered just at the thought of it. Toothless merely rolled his eyes.  
As the two boys exchanged their thoughts with each other, Fishlegs approached one of the pillars and felt it.  
“Fascinating,” he said to himself. Reaching into the satchel he wore on his belly belt, he pulled out a parchment book and a charcoal pencil. Fishlegs wrote down notes on every single detail he saw on the pillar and thought aloud, “Considering bits and pieces of rock are falling off the pillar and the images are washed out, I have to say this chamber is at least four-hundred years old. Oh, wow. Then it makes sense that this would be Berk’s birthplace.”  
Astrid stood in between the pillars and Viking statue and crossed her arms.  
“This is child’s play,” she mumbled to herself, “Disgusting. Even the dragons are involved.”  
“What’s wrong, Astrid?” she heard a voice ask behind her. Hiccup. He set Toothless down next to the young woman and climbed off him. “Do you always have to be so serious?” Astrid huffed and turned away from him. She blushed when she did this and pulled hair out of her face. “Astrid?” Hiccup questioned, “You okay?”  
“Yeah!” she snapped, “I’m fine! Why do you ask?” Her reaction caused Hiccup to cringe. Well, someone was in a grumpy mood. He looked to the right as he tried to think of something else to say.  
When something came to mind, he smiled, “Astrid, please. You can talk to me.”  
“You don’t need to say anything!” she retorted, “Now, leave me alone.” She almost whispered when she said that, “Please.”  
Hiccup held his hand out to her, “Astrid,” but she yelled,  
“Hiccup!”  
Hiccup jumped, as did Toothless, and angrily said, “Very well then.” He scoffed and turned away, “Some hero you are.” Astrid’s eyes widened, but she refused to speak. There was too much going on in her head right now. Hiccup clenched his fists and marched off in the direction of the fountain.  
Toothless followed him and listened as he complained about Astrid,  
“Girls. All I asked was if she was okay, and she snapped at me. I swear, what is wrong with everybody today?”  
He passed Tuffnut, who asked, “Hey! Table boy! What happened to shining my shoes?” Momentarily, Hiccup stopped and gave him a mix of a glare and pouty look, but he went on his way without even answering his friend’s question. Before Tuff could call him out again, Toothless growled at him. “Yikes!” Tuffnut yelled, and he leaped into Ruffnut’s arms, “Table boy! Your dragon just growled at me!”  
Ruffnut sniffed her brother and gagged, “Ugh. You smell like rotten cod with a sprinkle of yak dung on you.”  
“Which that is the true scent of Thorstonton II!” Tuff announced, and he held out his arms.  
Again, Toothless rolled his eyes, but he quickly pulled his attention away from the twins when he heard Hiccup, “Toothless. Over here.”  
_“Hm?_” the dragon asked. He noticed his friend was kneeling in front of the mysterious fountain with his hand in the glowing, blue water. Curious, Toothless crawled down the stairs and joined him.  
Hiccup pulled something out of the water and said, “Look what I found, bud. We can add it to our collection.” Toothless’s eyes widened, and he sniffed Hiccup’s discovery. What he held in his palm was another light, yellow crystal, except this one wasn’t part of a cluster. It was all alone. “This crystal looks exactly like the ones we found earlier, boy,” the young man told his dragon, “There has to be some purpose behind them. But what?”  
“What did you find son?” he suddenly heard Stoick ask behind him, and Hiccup leaped ten feet in the air.  
“Dad!” he sarcastically spoke, and he quickly hid the crystal behind his back, “What are you doing here? Boy, isn’t this a coincidence?”  
“Whatcha you got behind your back?” Stoick questioned, and he crossed his arms.  
“Behind my back? Oh, gee, Dad. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” As quick as a flash, Hiccup stuffed the crystal in Toothless’s saddlebag where it joined the others. When he pulled the top back over, he stood up and spun in a circle, “See? There’s nothing on me.”  
Stoick sighed, “Oh, Hiccup. What am I going to do with you? A chief does not lie to his subjects.” Ow. That stung a bit. Hiccup’s face dropped, and he lowered his head. To comfort him, Toothless put the top of his head under his hand. The dragon and boy stepped off to the side as the other Riders, Gobber, and the dragons came within reach of Stoick the Vast. Hiccup plopped down on the top of the staircase and pulled his knees up close. Stoick glanced at him, but his son looked away. Hiccup had a slight, irritated look on his face. He set his chin down on his knees. Toothless growled softly and nudged his head. His eyes rolled back to his saddlebag and back to his friend. “No.” Hiccup told him, “Not yet, Toothless. I first want to make sure these crystals aren’t leading us to a trap. If someone is going to fall into one, it’s going to be me. I can’t risk getting the others, especially my dad, hurt.” Toothless understood, but he still thought it was a good idea for his friend to go ahead and tell everybody about his discoveries. Hiccup, though, still refused.  
“All right, Riders!” Stoick announced, and he placed his hands on his hips, “Now it’s time for the moment you’ve all been waiting for!”  
“Yes!” Snotlout yelled, and he clenched his fists, “I’ve been waiting for this!” Glancing at Astrid, he puckered his lips, “Don’t worry, babe, I will protect you against whatever evil force comes for us!”  
Astrid chuckled sarcastically, “I’d sure like to see you try, Snotlout, but you are a bit of a coward.”  
“Ah ha, ha, ha!” he laughed, “Did you hear that, guys? Astrid thinks I’m a coward! Can you please tell her what rubbish that is?” However, nobody spoke. Not even the twins. Hiccup sighed and did a facepalm. Toothless jiggled in his spot and yawned. “Oh, come on!” Snotlout yelled, “What kind of friends are you?”  
“I appreciate the enthusiasm, Snotlout.” Stoick told the young man, “But whatever you say and do is not going to get Astrid any closer to you. Besides, this is one battle you can’t win alone.”  
“So what is the Light Dragon?” Astrid questioned, “Come on, Chief! Don’t leave us hanging! The sooner we know, the sooner we can figure out what’s wrong with Hiccup.”  
“Wrong with me?” asked Hiccup, and he removed his hand from his face, “Nothing is wrong with me! I feel fine!” The Riders, though, ignored him, and they called their dragons. Meatlug went to Fishlegs, Barf and Belch went to Ruff and Tuff, Hookfang went to Snotlout, and Stormfly went to Astrid. They plopped down and let their riders cuddle up against them. Something told them they had to prepare for a long story. Astrid, after getting comfortable, glanced at Hiccup, but he refused to join them. Instead, he stood up and headed towards one of the chamber’s pillars. The young man glared and crossed his arms. Toothless tried to join him, but Hiccup heard him coming and said, “No, boy.” He shook his head, “I just want to be left alone right now. You go over and join your friends. Please.” Toothless whined, but he understood Hiccup’s request. Head lowered, he made his way down the stairs and headed over to Astrid and Stormfly. He walked in a circle and scorched the rock under him to warm it up. He usually did this when he wanted to get comfortable. The dragon patted the flames out and lied down. He set his head on the ground and waited for Stoick’s story. Astrid pressed her back up against Stormfly and scratched the top of his head.  
Gobber started the tale.  
He pointed his prosthetic hammer arm up to the chamber’s ceiling and explained, “As Stoick said earlier, this chamber is where Berk first started. Four-hundred years ago, when Vikings first set foot on this island, they retreated to the underground, so it wouldn’t be easy for the dragons to find them. As the years progressed and the population grew, they moved their camps to the outside world where they built Berk’s first buildings.”  
“This all happened at the fall of the Roman Empire.” Fishlegs interrupted, and he excitedly pulled out his parchment book where he flipped through the pages, “And if my calculations are correct, I believe we are living in the ninth century right now. Oh, time goes by so fast.”  
“Um and why do we care?” Tuffnut asked him from Belch’s neck, “Last I checked we’re talking about dragons. Not the Roman Empire.”  
“Hee, hee.” Ruffnut cackled, “Good one, bro.”  
“Anyway.” Gobber continued, “Soon after Berk’s first buildings went up, a group of Vikings heard about a mysterious island that seemed to appear from out of nowhere on the outskirts of the archipelago.” Stoick jumped in here.  
He didn’t want Gobber to have all the fun, “They called that island Telemik.”  
Even though it looked like he wasn’t listening, Hiccup indeed was.  
“Telemik,” he mumbled. Very slowly, he started to turn his body in the direction of the Viking and dragon gathering. He thought about joining them, but then he saw Astrid and backed out. Again glaring, he kept his arms crossed and continued to watch the pillar in front of him. That was when he saw it. Another shimmer. Halfway up the pillar, something sparkled in the rocks, and this made Hiccup curious. Was it another crystal? Luckily, the first part of the pillar looked like a stair, so he did not have much trouble hopping onto the first platform.  
As he tried to reach the shimmer, Stoick continued the story,  
“Our ancestors said Telemik was beautiful.”  
Gobber jumped in, “They said the grass was as green as a seasick man’s face, and waterfalls, lakes, and lagoons were everywhere.”  
“The only thing missing,” Stoick explained, “Were the dragons. Or were they?” Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruff and Tuff gasped, but Astrid merely sighed. “So therefore.” Stoick continued, “Our ancestors traveled to the island’s heart where they found a lake like no other.”  
“Covered in plants and rocks,” Gobber brought his hands to his heart and leaned up against Stoick’s shoulder, “It rested in a deep valley where the sun and moon met their highest peaks. Oh, if only I was alive then. Then I could have seen that beautiful island for myself. You would join me. Right. Stoick?”  
“Uh.” Stoick stammered, but he stumbled back when Gobber pushed his shoulder with his good hand,  
“Please, Chief! That island is all I need in life!”  
The Riders stared at them, as well as the dragons, but Astrid quickly broke the awkward silence, “Um, excuse me, but I thought we were talking about the Light Dragon.”  
“Right.” Stoick pushed Gobber off him and cracked his shoulders, “Where were we?”  
Hiccup jumped off the pillar’s platform he was on and reached for the next one. This jump, though, was much higher. He managed to grasp the platform’s edge, but he had to climb the rest of the way up. You can imagine that was very difficult for him. Hiccup managed to stick his right foot through a crack in the pillar, but his metal leg slipped, and it wasn’t long until he was dangling like a puppet on a string. Seriously? All he had to do was climb onto the next platform, and he would reach the shimmer.  
While Hiccup struggled to climb the pillar, Stoick put his hands behind him and started to pace.  
His face turned stern, “But what the Vikings found in that lake was something beyond compare. It was a different kind of dragon. A light dragon. They called it…Naga.”  
As soon as he said that, Fishleg’s eyes widened, “What a minute. Naga?” He pushed his back off Meatlug’s nose and slowly approached Stoick and Gobber, “You don’t mean The Naga, right?”  
“Wait, Fishlegs.” Astrid held her hand out to her friend, “You know about it?”  
“Yes.” Fishlegs quickly flipped through the pages of his book again, “I read about him in some of the ancient scriptures. Ah ha, here we go.” He stopped on one page and turned to face his friends. “‘Naga,’” Fishlegs read, “‘the greatest threat known to Viking kind; he has the power to plunge all of life, even us…into eternal darkness!’”  
“Eternal darkness?!” Astrid leaped to her feet and took a step back.  
“Whoa!” Tuffnut yelled, “A dragon that can take away the Sun? That’s sick!”  
“That is one dragon I’d love to see Hiccup tame!” Ruffnut joked.  
“Huh?” Hiccup asked from where he hung, but as soon as he asked that, the rocks broke under his hand. “Aw come on,” he groaned. Hiccup slid down the pillar’s wall, bounced off the first platform, and landed in a heap at the base of it. No one paid him any attention. Right now, their attention was on Fishlegs, Stoick, and Gobber – not the scrawny, one-legged boy who just fell off a pillar. Even worse, the fall bent his second spare leg. Ugh. Could Hiccup’s day get any worse? This was totally Barf and Belch all over again! Frustrated, he untied the leg and pulled it off. Hiccup clenched it so tightly that his fist turned white.  
“Legend has it.” Stoick explained, “If the Light Dragon ever woke again, two Vikings would travel the archipelago and find the missing crystals of its body. Naga lost them when he fought against those Vikings who invaded his island four-hundred years ago. When the Two Heroes have all the crystals and construct the Crystal Crown, they shall travel to Telemik and return it to the Light Dragon. Only the Crystal Crown will stop him from dooming all of Berk and mankind to a world we never expected.”  
“The Two Heroes.” Astrid mimicked, “Hiccup and I. That’s why we had the same dream last night.”  
“Crystals?” Hiccup asked himself from where he rested, and his eyes moved up to the shimmering light in the pillar again. During his time at Dragon’s Edge, he learned many legends and stories about dragons he never knew, but this one beat them all. It was fascinating. He had quite a lot of work to do when he returned to his hut later.  
Finally, the story was coming to a close, but Stoick wanted to end it with a bang. His eyes landed on his son leaning up against the pillar, and he marched towards him. The others followed.  
Ruff and Tuff, still riding on Barf and Belch, talked about how awesome the Light Dragon was, while Fishlegs flipped through his book some more to see if he had any more information about Naga, and Snotlout nervously chewed his nails. “Beware though, young’uns.” Stoick explained, and he stopped in front of his son, “This is a very dangerous dragon we’re dealing with here. He is very smart. Not only does the Light Dragon torture its victims physically.” Behind his back, he hooked his fingers together and bent down to Hiccup, “He also tortures them psychologically.”


	6. Gothi, Ryker, Dagur, and Naga

By the time the Riders, Stoick, Gobber, and dragons found their way out of the secret chamber and mysterious, underground cave it was well beyond lunchtime. They returned to the village, hungry, but before any of them got a bite to eat, they took Hiccup to Gothi, even though he refused. Gobber didn’t take the time to fix one of his spare legs in the chamber. This was because Hiccup would run away if he did, and like everybody else, Gobber wanted him checked out. Stoick carried his son over his shoulder the whole way out the Chamber of Mystery. Sure, the young man fought at first, but he eventually wore himself out. Now he just casually hung from his father’s shoulder with his head propped up as they made their way through the village. Toothless played Follow the Leader with him. He walked in front of Hiccup and refused to leave him. Hiccup’s legs swung back and forth with the movement of his father’s hips, but he didn’t wear another spare leg on his bad one. Because of that, there was no way he could escape.  
Astrid walked next to Toothless, with her arms crossed, and smirked at her friend, “So, how do you like it up there?”  
“Ha, ha. Very funny.” Hiccup sarcastically spoke, “Come on, Astrid. Is this really necessary?”  
“Yes. Yes it is.”  
Before long, Ruffnut and Tuffnut joined them, and they too started to play with Hiccup. “Personally.” Ruffnut admitted, “I am super jealous. At least you got a ride back to Berk.”  
“I know.” Tuffnut agreed, “It’s so sad. Here we have to work our muscles sore and young Hiccup gets the easy way out.”  
“Oh, for the love of…!” Hiccup snapped, “You and Ruff, Tuff, are riding on the back of Barf and Belch for Norse Sakes!”  
“Ah, that’s right,” the twins admitted, and they peered down to their two-headed dragon.  
Astrid and Toothless pushed them off to the side so they could see Hiccup better. “Please, Astrid,” he begged, “Tell Gobber to fix one of my legs.”  
Astrid again smirked, “Sorry, Hiccup. You’ll run away if he does.” Toothless laughed a little bit, but his smile quickly died when he saw Hiccup’s face.  
Only five minutes later, the Vikings and their dragons climbed the stairs to Gothi’s hut where they found her meditating under the midafternoon sun. She was a short, old woman who had two long braids and wore a Viking hat on her head. In her hand, she held a stick. Since Gothi was a mute, her only way of communicating was drawing symbols in the dirt. She preferred that instead of sign language any day. The Vikings and dragons stopped behind her, and Stoick pulled Hiccup off his shoulder. He set him down in front of him, and Astrid quickly grabbed him to prevent him from falling. She put Hiccup’s arm over her shoulders and snuck up behind the meditating, old woman.  
Clearing her throat, she smiled nervously and asked, “Um, Gothi?” At the sound of her voice, Gothi immediately lost concentration and opened her eyes. She angrily clenched her fists and turned to see who interrupted her exercise. At the sight of the Riders, her usual clients, she did a facepalm. She did not need to write down what she was thinking. It was all in her face.  
Gothi mentally asked the teens, _“Again?”_ Chuckling nervously, Astrid lifted her hand and waved. Hiccup merely rolled his eyes.  
Gothi took the Riders, Gobber, Stoick, and only Toothless into her hut. Meatlug, Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf and Belch remained outside and took a little nap. All that playing around in the Chamber of Mystery worked off a good sweat for them, and they wanted to sleep it off. Before Hiccup knew it, he was sitting on the client bed in Gothi’s hut with crossed arms and a pouty face turned on. Astrid stood next to him.  
She rested her arm on the bed’s bedpost and once again smirked at him, “Oh, if looks could kill. Why such the pouty face, Hiccup?” Hiccup sighed and dropped his shoulders. Off to the side, Stoick, Gobber, and the rest of the Riders spoke with Gothi and told her what happened in the underground cave. They explained the entire berserk episode, but Hiccup had a hard time believing it really happened. He never went berserk. It wasn’t part of his personality. To make matters worse, Toothless rested on the dirt floor in front of the client bed, and he played with one of Hiccup’s bent spare legs. He chewed on it and wagged his tail. The dragon treated the leg like a modern-day tennis ball. Hiccup growled and hopped to his good leg.  
He reached for Toothless and said, “Give me that,” but Astrid pushed him back down on the bed. The Night Fury growled and pulled his toy close to him. He closed his eyes and turned his head.  
When the remaining Riders, Gobber, and Stoick stopped chatting with Gothi, the meeting broke apart, and Gothi approached her pouting patient. Astrid stepped off to the side and let her work. As she watched, Stoick took her shoulder because he felt her uneasiness. Gothi hopped up on the client bed and studied Hiccup up and down.  
She stood on her tiptoes and leaned in close to his head. “Uh.” Hiccup uncomfortably spoke, and he pulled it away from her. The old woman put her staff down and pressed her index finger against the bruise on his temple.  
Hiccup flinched and grabbed hold of her wrist. “We know it hurts, lad.” Stoick told him, “But Gothi needs to give that mysterious bruise a look.” What was so mysterious about the bruise? Hm, well it wasn’t the typical bluish-purplish bruise. Instead, it was light yellow.  
The color was very similar to the crystals Hiccup found in the underground cave that day. “It’s not the bruise that hurts,” he told his father, “It’s my pride. Here I am, completely fine, and you guys say I’m not. I’m telling you, Dad, you shouldn’t have chewed me out in the Chamber of Mystery in the first place.”  
“Uh oh.” Tuffnut said, “I’m sensing a bit of jealousy.”  
“What am I jealous about?”  
“Face it, son.” Stoick sternly said, “You’re a terrible liar. You’re hiding something from us, and we want to know what.”  
“Dad. I already told you. I’m not hiding anything.” Nevertheless, as Hiccup said that, Toothless again crouched to the ground with a look of guilt on his face.  
“You disappoint me, son.” Chief Stoick crossed his arms and glared at the eighteen-year-old Viking, “If you’re going to become chief, then you need to stop everything. The lies, the secrets. People are relying on you.”  
Hiccup narrowed his eyebrows to an angry position and raised his voice, “Well, maybe I don’t want to be chief!” Right as he said that, everybody gasped. Did they seriously hear that from Hiccup? Gothi plopped down on her backside and crossed her legs. She curiously watched the angry, young man as he continued to argue with his father. She noticed that the bruise on his temple was glowing a little bit. Gothi wondered if Hiccup knew what he was saying. She wondered…what if something was forcing him to fight back and act like this? Hiccup glared at his father, “Yeah, I said it!” and pushed himself to his foot. He grabbed hold of the bedpost and continued to snap, “I’m not like you, Dad! I can’t run a tribe of people! Somewhere out there in the archipelago is the place where I truly belong, and believe me; I am going to find that place whether it kills me!”  
“Hiccup.” Astrid nervously spoke, but Hiccup ignored her.  
He turned to Toothless and ordered, “Come on, Toothless. I’ve had enough of all this rubbish.” Toothless whined, but he approached his Rider’s side. Hiccup snatched the bent spare leg out of his mouth and climbed onto his neck. He ordered Toothless forward, and with his head lowered, the dragon exited the building. The remaining Riders, Gobber, Stoick, and Gothi watched them leave.  
Astrid rubbed her eye and asked in a horrified voice, “What is wrong with him?”  
“Wrong with him?” Tuffnut questioned, “That, was the best thing I’ve seen all day! Who knew that skinny, one-legged rider could pick a verbal fight!” Gothi remained on the bed. She scratched her chin and batted her stick on the bed’s covers a few times. She had a feeling she knew what was going on with Stoick’s son. Something was tormenting him – something powerful, and if she didn’t whip up a cure soon, Berk may lose Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III forever.  
Not far from the island of Berk, in the cool waters of Medieval Norway, sailed a group of longboats. Dragon Hunters. Berserkers. Ryker, one of Hiccup’s worst enemies, was on one of these boats. He was a big, powerful man who had a baldhead and a goatee. He crushed logs every day, so he had very big and powerful arms. Aside from him, another one of Hiccup’s worst enemies was with him. This man’s name was Dagur. He had red hair and a beard and was just as powerful as Ryker. Both of these men served Viggo, the leader of the Dragon Hunters, and they all had one goal. Use the Light Dragon to eliminate Hiccup Horrendous Haddock once and for all. One of the reasons was because he was the next heir of Berk, and two: he owned a Night Fury, one of the most powerful dragons in the Viking world.  
Ryker stood at the bow of the boat with his hands behind his back and stared out to the open ocean.  
Dagur snuck up from behind, but he sensed him coming, “Dagur. How’s our little puppet doing?”  
“Terrific, I have to say.” Dagur responded, and from his back, he pulled out another single crystal of the Light Dragon, “Before we know it, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock will be ours.” In his hand, the crystal glowed a little bit.  
Ryker turned to his ally and smiled evilly, “Why don’t we ask our little friend himself?”  
“Ho, ho.” Dagur chuckled, “I thought you’d never ask.” With that, he pushed past Ryker and took his place at the bow. Dagur cracked his shoulders and loosened his muscles. Once he was ready, he held the crystal up to the shining Sun. The shimmering rays struck it, and as soon as they did, it covered the whole longboat in shimmering, yellow dots. A blast of wind blew Dagur’s hair, and he called to the ocean, “Come, my pet! Descend upon this earth and share your knowledge with us all!” The crew on his and Ryker’s longboat stopped what they were doing and peered out to the ocean with the evil man. The water grew rough, and waves crashed amongst the group of longboats. Within the ocean appeared the heterochromatic eyes of the Light Dragon and before the Hunters knew it, a huge, bipedal dragon splashed out of the ocean! Naga! His body dimmed a bit at the sight of his masters, and he roared his metal-screeching roar into the atmosphere.  
Naga was a terrifying-looking dragon but also quite beautiful. He had a crystalline, prism-like body structure, two sets of wings, and two heterochromatic eyes. His body was primarily yellow, light yellow, and white, but in the rays of the Sun, multiple rainbows found their way into the many different prisms on it. He stood at least thirty feet tall, weighed about five-hundred pounds, and for the finale, he had a set of sword-like teeth in his mouth.  
Ryker shoved Dagur off to the side and held his hands out to the terrifying-looking Light Dragon.  
“Naga!” he shouted, “I am your master now! Tell me, how is your mission going?” He swiped the crystal from Dagur and held it up to Naga’s face. The dragon opened its sword-fanged mouth and roared into the gem.  
When his sound waves reached the other end of it that roar translated to, _“Terrific. I’ve got the boy right where I want him.”_ His voice was just as terrifying as it should be with a dragon of his magnitude, _“Only a little more to go and I will drag him to my island.”_  
“And from there,” Ryker laughed, “Viggo will take over. We are proud of you, Naga. In just a short amount of time, we can say goodbye to Hiccup Horrendous Haddock forever! Now go! Fulfill your destiny! Make little Ryker proud!” The Light Dragon nodded and wrapped his wings around his body. He dove back into the ocean, SPLASH, and the splash he created caused the longboat to rock. Saltwater sprayed all over Ryker, but he did not care. He was too proud of his accomplishment. He finally succeeded with something. Dagur stood up from where he landed and brushed his body down. “Isn’t this fantastic, Dagur?” Ryker asked him, “We are the owners of the most powerful dragon in the world! Hiccup Horrendous Haddock and those pesky Riders have no chance against us!”  
“I understand your enthusiasm, Ryker,” Dagur spoke, “but, um…”  
“‘But what?’” Ryker snapped, and he turned to face him. Dagur jumped.  
He shivered but went ahead and asked, “Do you not even realize what that dragon is capable of? It has the power to plunge all of Berk and the world into eternal darkness.”  
“And why do you care?!”  
“I don’t.” Dagur held his hands in front of him to defend himself, “I just think it’s wise for you to know.”  
“Ha! Ha! Ha! You make me laugh, Dagur!” Ryker placed his hands on his hips and laughed for a good while. When he finally spoke again, he said, “I don’t care what happens to the world! As long as we get rid of that annoying boy and capture his Night Fury, I am completely satisfied!”  
“I was afraid you’d say that.” Dagur sighed and dropped his hands.  
Deep in the ocean, Naga flapped his wings and slipped gracefully through the water. His heterochromatic eyes glowed in the darkness, and he made his way towards Berk where he hoped to make his masters proud so he could return his broken and shattered body back to how it used to be, four-hundred years ago on Telemik.


	7. A Struggle to Bear Arms

Dusk on the Island of Berk was beautiful. When it came, the Sun cloaked the whole village in a mesmerizing, orange light. Dusk was also a sign that it was time for dinner, and just the thought of dinner excited the villagers. They excitedly made their way towards the dining hall, but someone was missing in the crowd. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock. Instead of enjoying a nice, hot meal, he locked himself up in his hut with Toothless. Besides, he wasn’t that hungry anyway.  
Hiccup was in his room sitting at his desk. Next to him was the Dragon Eye, the artifact that he hoped would give him some answers about the Light Dragon. When he made it to his hut, he quickly fixed the leg he swiped from Toothless, so now he finally had something on his stump to help him walk. The young man wasn’t making much progress with his research, though. He was under a lot of stress. It was at the point he felt like crying. He rested his aching head on his arms and stared into outer space. Toothless stood next to him. He tried to play with his friend by nudging his shoulder, but Hiccup didn’t look at him.  
He thought about the argument he had with his father in Gothi’s hut, what he and Astrid said that morning at breakfast, and what they told him in the secret chamber:

“I did want you to help me with a few things around the island today, Hiccup, to start your chief training.”  
“Oh, my gods, Hiccup! You’re going to become chief soon!”  
“Stoick is right! You cannot even survive one simple task without relying on Toothless or me!”  
And…  
“A chief does not lie to his subjects.”

Hiccup struggled to bear arms. He didn’t know what to do. Anything he tried, Astrid and his father spat it right back in his face. Sure, he had Toothless, but that wasn’t enough. Astrid was right. He relied too much on her and his dragon, and he had to change that.  
Once again, Toothless nudged his friend, but Hiccup told him,  
“Not now, Toothless. Can’t you see I’m depressed?” Toothless gave him a funny look and grumbled. His eyes landed on the Dragon Eye, and wanting to play, he scooped it up in his powerful jaw. The dragon put the artifact on the ground and batted it like a cat chasing after a laser light. However, the strangest thing happened. Suddenly, something in Toothless’s saddlebag shimmered, and a single light yellow dot appeared in front of him. He went crazy. As the dot moved around the room, Toothless pounced and unsheathed his claws. He ran in circles and ended up knocking over a few barrels, chairs, and another desk. CRASH! “Toothless!” Hiccup yelled from where he sat, and he leaped to his feet. There was Toothless. Half his body was under his friend’s bed, and it jiggled with his movement. “What are you doing?” Hiccup asked. He scooped up the Dragon Eye from the floor and came within reach of his dragon. Unfortunately, his voice startled the Night Fury so much that he jumped, and the bed flipped over! It slid to the other end of the room and bounced against the wall. “Toothless!” Hiccup snapped, but he quickly lost his glare when he saw the guilt in Toothless’s face. He didn’t mean to flip Hiccup’s bed over, but that yellow dot fascinated him. From where he stood, the young man sighed and apologized, “I’m sorry, bud. I didn’t mean to snap. There’s just too much going on in my head right now.” Returning to his desk, he plopped back down and tossed Toothless the Dragon Eye. He knew he liked to play with it. As the dragon gently chewed on the artifact, he used his forehead to flip Hiccup’s bed back over. Next, he slid it back to where it belonged and used his tail to flick the pillow and covers on. Afterwards, he started to play with the Dragon Eye again. This time, the dragon fell onto his back and used his tongue to shoot it into the air like a catapult, but when it came back down something again shimmered in his saddlebag. Shimmer, shimmer. This time, the shimmer hit the Dragon Eye, and as soon as it did, it gave off a flash of light! FLASH! The light hit Hiccup square in the face, and he yelled, “Whoa!” He was so startled that he toppled out of his chair and landed with a ka-plop on the dirt ground. Not only did the light hit Hiccup in the face, it also hit Toothless, and as soon as it did, he flattened his ears and growled at the Dragon Eye, which now rested in front of him. “What was that?” Hiccup asked from where he rested, and he leaped to his feet. Slowly and carefully, he approached his dragon and asked, “You okay?” Toothless nodded, but he continued to growl at the Dragon Eye. When he saw what he was looking at, a question mark appeared above Hiccup’s head, “The Dragon Eye? Did it cause that flash of light?” Toothless bobbed his head up and down for his answer, and this made Hiccup even more curious. Approaching the artifact, he picked it up and moved it back and forth to see if it flashed again. Wait a minute. Maybe it wasn’t the Dragon Eye that flashed but...“The crystals.” Hiccup mumbled. Toothless allowed him to open his saddlebag, and his friend pulled out the cluster of crystals and single crystal they found in the underground cave and chamber. A small smile crept across the teen’s face. “Toothless,” he spoke, “I think we may be on to something.”  
With that, he started back towards his desk, and Toothless followed.  
“Hiccup?” the dragon seemed to ask. When he made it to his desk, his friend put the crystals down, but he continued to hold the Dragon Eye. He set his backside down in the chair and held it up to his face.  
Hiccup curiously examined it up and down, from side to side, and gave Toothless an order, “Toothless. Small flame.” Toothless nodded and opened his mouth. A small flame appeared in it, and he used it like a flashlight. The light sliced through the lens at one side of the artifact and created an image on the wall from the other side. The heart of the image showed a dragon, and surrounding the dragon were ancient scriptures and other images. Hiccup examined the image and thought aloud. He recognized the dragon class it portrayed and identified it for Toothless, “That’s the Stoker class.” As he said this, he thought about the Light Dragon, the way his dreams portrayed it, and tried to figure out the class for which it belonged. He said no to the Stoker class and flipped the image. At the end of the Dragon Eye were seven buttons, and each button identified the seven dragon classes: Stoker, Boulder, Sharp, Tidal, Tracker, Mystery, and Strike. One of things that fascinated Hiccup about the Light Dragon was that it was bipedal. During all his adventures exploring the archipelago, he almost never saw a dragon that stood on two legs. The next class that came to mind, aside from the Stoker class, was the Mystery class, but then Hiccup remembered seeing spikes on the dragon’s tail and a mouth full of razor sharp fangs. Perhaps it belonged to the Sharp class, but just before he set the idea in stone, the terrifying roar Naga used to torment him came to mind. Maybe it wasn’t part of the Stoker, Mystery and Sharp classes but the Tracker one instead. Then again, the attack it launched at him and Toothless in the Chamber of Emptiness during his mirage looked like a Strike attack, and Hiccup thought it maybe belonged in the Strike class just like his dragon friend. He could not figure it out! Why was this Light Dragon so complicated?  
After a few minutes of intuitive thinking, Hiccup thought of something.  
Both his and Toothless’s eyes landed on the cluster of crystals. “Toothless, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” the young man asked his dragon, and Toothless responded with a nod. He closed his mouth and pulled his head away from the Dragon Eye’s lens. As soon as he did, the image projected on the wall faded.  
Hiccup set everything up. He pulled the cluster of crystals closer to him, adjusted a few of the Dragon Eye’s rings, and set it down in front of his and Toothless’s faces.  
Once he was ready, he scratched the top of the Night Fury’s head and ordered, “All right, boy. Give me another small flame.” Toothless nodded and obeyed. For this round of research, something fascinating happened – something the dragon and boy never expected. Not only did the light from Toothless’s flame refract, it also found its way through the Dragon Eye’s lens. As soon as it did, the whole room exploded into a huge array of shimmering, glowing images, dots, and figures, and in the heart of it all was an image that showed a huge, bipedal dragon! The Light Dragon! Hiccup gasped, as did Toothless, and a few of the dots shimmered on them. Hiccup slowly got up from his seat and approached the image of the bipedal beast. He reached his hand up to it and told his dragon friend, “This is it.” A small smile crept across his face, “We’ve found it. The Light Dragon!” Toothless was just as excited as him. His tail waved back and forth like crazy, but he accidentally knocked down a few barrels again. Hiccup did not care. He just sauntered around the decorated room and examined the different images. He stopped in front of some writing and read it aloud, “‘The Light Dragon’s powers. Physical and psychological damage, it lures its victims into its den by tormenting them psychologically. It gets its power from sunlight. When it feels endangered or drained of power, it uses the sunlight to give it strength.’ Hold on. Psychological damage?’” Right as he read that, an eerie pain found its way into his brain, “The Light Dragon tortures its victims psychologically?” No. He couldn’t believe that. Just, no. Today was just an off day for him. No way was there an extremely powerful dragon in his head. Or was there? No. That was just impossible. Although, the thought still haunted the young man. He distracted himself by saying he would be back to normal in the morning. Yeah. He just needed to sleep the day off. With this in mind, Hiccup did not bother to study the other images. He told Toothless to stop lighting up the Dragon Eye and sauntered over to his now messy bed. The dragon watched him.  
Hiccup fell onto his bed and pulled off his metal leg.  
He pushed Toothless’s muzzle away from him and said, “Goodnight, Toothless.” Then just like that, he fell onto his pillow and pulled his covers over his head. Poor Toothless was so bewildered. It wasn’t even dark out yet, and Hiccup was already ready for bed? What on Earth was going on with his best friend today? Oh well, if Hiccup decided it was time for sleep, perhaps it was time for Toothless to sleep too. Shaking out his head, he approached the hut’s fire pit and shot a Plasma Blast to light it up. Before long, a warm light washed over the whole room. Next, Toothless pranced over to his rock mat, and like in the Chamber of Mystery, he scorched it. Lying down, he put his head on his front legs and peered over to Hiccup’s bed. He noticed that the young man shuffled under his covers, but he kept his head covered. Toothless stayed awake for a good while, but eventually his eyes drooped, and he yawned. Only a short time later, he fell into a deep sleep and dreamed about codfish raining from the sky. While the dragon may have been asleep, it did not mean Hiccup wasn’t. In fact, in just a few more hours, something even more fascinating than the Light Dragon’s image projected on the wall would happen, and he and Toothless would have to ready for it.  
Hiccup had a very rough time falling asleep that night. He worried that he would hear the metal-screeching roar again if he did. While Toothless slept warm and comfortably on his rock mat, Hiccup shuffled all over the place. He frustratingly punched his pillow and put it over his head. As he lied there, he thought about the images the crystals gave him and Toothless earlier. He felt like he missed something – something important because all his attention was on the psychological torture message. What could he have missed though? He had no idea.  
Hiccup stayed awake for he didn’t know how long. Finally, he could take no more. Sighing, he took the pillow off his head and climbed out of bed. After picking up the Dragon Eye, crystals, and his notebook and charcoal pencil, he exited his hut. He left Toothless behind so he could sleep.  
The young man went to the Great Hall and sat down at one of the tables. Since it was the middle of the night right now, there was nobody else in it. Or was there? Hiccup set the Dragon Eye, crystals, notebook and pencil down in front of him and rested his chin on the tabletop. He stared out to the empty room and thought about everything that was happening to him. Not only did he worry about the Light Dragon, he also worried about his relationship with Astrid and his father’s urge to make him chief soon. It wasn’t long until he heard a huff, and someone approached him from the side. Toothless. He woke up not too long ago and noticed his friend was missing, but he knew he liked to come to the Great Hall to think.  
Hiccup knew his dragon was next to him and said,  
“Hey, bud. I’m sorry, but I can’t sleep. I don’t know what’s happening to me.” Toothless knew what was going on. Hiccup was at the stage in his life where he was old enough to become chief but still young enough to go on adventures. Something was in his head too. “I don’t know what to do,” continued the young man, and he propped it up, “If I tell my dad, Astrid, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, and Snotlout about the crystals, I could be putting them in terrible danger. I just, I can’t risk that.” While Toothless understood his friend’s concern, Hiccup had to realize that he did not have to fight this battle alone. He wasn’t the only hero meant to save Berk and the world from eternal darkness. He had his dragon, he had his friends, and he had himself – Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. He just had to believe.  
“You’re not alone, Hiccup,” a voice suddenly spoke behind him. Astrid. She, Snotlout, Ruff and Tuff, and Fishlegs followed Toothless to the Great Hall. He got them when he saw Hiccup was missing.  
Hiccup gasped at the sight of his friends, “Guys? What are you doing here?” and he glanced at Toothless, “Toothless, don’t tell me…”  
“He did.” Astrid answered before he finished his question, and she sat down next to her friend, “You have to realize you’re not the only one who is concerned about the future of our world.”  
“Well.” Tuffnut spoke, “I did hear from Toothless that our dear Hiccup found some crystals today.”  
“And he did!” Snotlout cheered, “Yes!” Excited, he scooped up the cluster of crystals and held it up to the ceiling, “Ho! Ho! We’re rich!”  
“Hey, Hiccster.” Ruffnut said, “Make sure you share some of your wealth with all of us. I need something to help my baby brother here.”  
“Don’t feel guilty, kid.” Tuffnut added when he saw Hiccup’s upset face, “This day was bound to come. It’s not our fault you’re about to lose everything you love.”  
“Thanks, Tuff.” Hiccup narrowed his eyebrows, “That makes me feel so much better.” Tuff nodded and gave him a thumb’s up.  
“I hate to admit it,” said Fishlegs, “but Tuff does have a point, Hiccup. Why didn’t you tell us about the crystals?”  
“I have a point?” Tuffnut’s eyes widened, “Did I actually get something right for once?” He gasped, “Oh, Thor! Is this accomplishment I feel?”  
“Don’t get used to it,” said Astrid, and she met Hiccup’s eyes, “Tell us, Hiccup. Why didn’t you tell us?”  
“Sorry, guys. This is something I must keep to myself,” was Hiccup’s answer.  
“I like this guy.” Ruffnut chuckled, and she took Hiccup’s shoulder, “Don’t worry about those barbarians, kid. You can talk to little old Ruffnut here.”  
“I already told you,” said Hiccup, “This is something I must keep to myself.” He removed Ruffnut’s hand from his shoulder, and she dropped it to her side.  
Tuffnut, though, fought back, “I’ll give you the chicken when we get back to Dragon’s Edge. The chicken has always been interested in you. I almost can say that you could marry the chicken.” Before long, everyone else took the twins’ side.  
Snotlout punched his palm and cracked his shoulders, “I’ll let you fight my father head on, table boy. He’ll show you how a real man fights.”  
_“What are you doing?”_ Astrid mouthed at her friends, but they ignored her.  
Fishlegs jumped into the mix next, “Yeah, and you can walk Meatlug every morning. She likes you quite a lot too.”  
“No!” Tuffnut stomped his foot, “The chicken belongs to him, not your overgrown sausage, Fishlegs!”  
“Fight all you want, Tuffnut, but I still think Meatlug truly belongs with Hiccup.”  
“No! It’s the chicken!”  
“Meatlug.”  
“The chicken!”  
“Meatlug!”  
“The chicken!” Both Tuffnut and Fishlegs slammed their Viking hats together as they continued to fight. This got on Hiccup’s nerves.  
“Everybody, shut up!” he snapped when he couldn’t hold his anger in any longer, and he leaped to his feet, “This isn’t making me feel any better!” His friends cringed and lost their smiles when they saw how angry he was. Even Astrid was nervous, and she was Astrid. “Do you want to know the real reason behind all this?” Hiccup annoyingly asked, “Well, here you go! The Light Dragon! The Light Dragon is torturing me! I can’t even go five minutes without hearing its metal-screeching roar in my head, and you guys aren’t making it any better!” He clenched his fist and punched the tabletop of the table he was just sitting at. A searing pain engulfed his fist, but Hiccup ignored it, “Give me a reason why the Light Dragon chose me to torture! Give me a reason why out of all of us here, I’m the one who had to lose a leg! Give me a reason why Toothless got you when this is something I must figure out myself! Give me a reason!” Here, he glared at his shivering dragon, “Thanks to you, Toothless, you only made this worse! This is not your problem, and it’s not theirs! It’s mine!” Terrified, Toothless crouched down and put his head on his paws. Hiccup never snapped at him. This yelling was not like him at all. “I’ve had enough of all this!” he continued, “If you’re just going to cause problems, then go somewhere else!” With that, he stormed to another table and plopped down on a bench facing away from his friends. Hiccup clutched his head with both hands and lowered it.  
Ruffnut only said one word,  
“Whoa.” Astrid, on the other hand, glanced at the guilt-stricken Toothless and sighed. She gestured for him and the others to wait while she tried to knock some sense into the stressed-out son of Chief Stoick. Astrid slowly approached him and sat down on the bench as well.  
She took his shoulder and said, “Hiccup, listen to me. You are much more than what you make yourself out to be. You are not Hiccup because of Toothless, Ruff, Tuff, Fishlegs, Snotlout, your father, and I. You’re Hiccup because you are you. You’re Heroic, as any chief should be, Inventive, Creative, Cognitive, Understanding, and Pure-Hearted. You have the makings of a great chief one day, but keep in mind that even a chief ask for help when things get rocky. When they do, he looks to his people. His people are always willing to help fight the battle that seems impossible, and that is what we have to do with this Light Dragon. We need to work together.”  
Hiccup carefully listened to her words and repeated them in his brain:

“Heroic  
Inventive  
Creative  
Cognitive  
Understanding  
Pure-hearted…”

Which, all together, that spelled “Hiccup.”

Astrid was right. Hiccup was not her or his father, Toothless, Ruff, Tuff, Snotlout, and Fishlegs. He was Hiccup, the next heir of Berk – a boy who had seven amazing friends who would risk life and limb to help him through Berk’s most stressful times. As the message sunk in, one by one his friends approached him.  
Fishlegs smiled and said, “I’m in.”  
“So am I.” Astrid also smiled.  
“Well.” Snotlout chuckled, “I’d rather not die, but if it will make both you and my father proud, I might as well help too.”  
The twins were next in line to approach the young man. “Besides.” Ruffnut joked, “You may need some advice from expert Dragon Riders like us.”  
“That’s right.” Tuffnut stood tall and placed his hands on his hips, “I will whip up a huge pot of yak dung tea and dump it on the Light Dragon! That will tell it not to mess around with Tuffnut and his chicken!” Toothless was the last one to join Hiccup.  
He set his chin down on the tabletop, grumbling, and the two met eyes. “So you see, Hiccup,” finished Astrid, “you’re not alone. Working together as a team, we will take on the Light Dragon and restore peace, serenity, and prosperity to the world in which we live. You just have to believe.”


	8. The Map to Telemik

Only a short time later, Hiccup announced, “All right, Riders! Feast your eyes upon all the information Toothless and I have of the Light Dragon right now!” He and his dragon moved one of the Great Hall’s tables over near the wall, and their friends sat in wooden chairs in front of them. On the table, the Dragon Eye sat propped up against a wooden block that looked like a miniature platform. Hiccup and Toothless lined up the cluster of crystals with the artifact’s lens. Once everything was set up and ready to go, Hiccup put his hands behind his back and glanced at his dragon, “Now, Toothless!” Toothless nodded and opened his mouth. FLASH!  
Once again, the whole room exploded into a huge array of shimmering dots, images, writing, etc. “Whoa!” the remaining teens yelled, and they hopped up from their seats.  
“It’s like a million suns found their way into our planet.” Astrid observed, and her face brightened at the sight of the beautiful images.  
“Uh, guys,” the friends heard Fishlegs say from off to the side, “You may want to take a look at this.” He was standing in front of the huge image of Naga that Hiccup and Toothless observed earlier.  
“Is that the dragon of the hour?” Tuffnut asked as he, Ruffnut, Astrid, Snotlout, Hiccup and Toothless joined Fishlegs, “The one destined to destroy everything and everyone our dear Hiccup loves?”  
Hiccup laughed and placed his hands on his hips, “We’ll see about that. Yes. That’s the dragon of the hour.”  
“And…” Astrid shivered, “the beast that’s torturing you, Hiccup?”  
“What dragon class is it?” Fishlegs questioned, and he glanced at Hiccup who was sketching down a picture of the Light Dragon in his notebook.  
“I was hoping you’d know,” was his answer, “I went through all the classes in my hut earlier, but there wasn’t one I could set in stone.”  
“You know what class I think it is?” Ruffnut asked, and she giggled, “The Thorstonton class! From this point on, the Light Dragon shall become Thorstonton II’s mascot!”  
“It shall join the chicken!” Tuffnut added. He pointed his finger up towards the room’s ceiling and stood up straight.  
“Sure.” Snotlout said while tapping his chin, “But don’t you two muttonheads realize what this dragon is capable of?”  
“Being awesome?” Ruffnut questioned,  
“Charming?” added Tuffnut, “Because I have to say that Light Dragon is almost as handsome as me.”  
“No!” Snotlout frustratingly yelled, “It’s going to doom all of us to eternal darkness!”  
“Oh yeah,” the twins spoke at the same time, and they pointed at him, “That too.”  
“Well, peace out, bros.” Slowly and carefully, Snotlout started to back away from the meeting, “It’s time to abandon the island. I’m going somewhere warm.”  
“We’re not abandoning Berk.” Hiccup told him, “Berk is our home. Even if we did abandon it, we would not be much safer in the other parts of the world. After all, this is the Light Dragon we’re talking about.”  
“That’s right.” Astrid agreed, “It can steal the Sun, and the Sun is crucial for every living thing on the planet.”  
Snotlout sighed and dropped his arms, “You might have a point. Remind me again why I agreed to sign up for this in the first place?” From where he stood, Hiccup gave him an unamused stare. After about a minute or two, the teens broke apart into separate directions, and they each examined the different images the Dragon Eye gave them. Hiccup had his notebook and pencil with him to take notes. He jotted down the Light Dragon’s powers as well as its connection with the Sun. Only a few minutes into his research, he noticed something quite interesting. One of the light rays refracted against the crystals pointed at a dark hallway, and a faded light came from it. At the sight of it, Hiccup raised his eyebrow and slipped his notebook and pencil behind his tunic belt. Seeming to fall under a trance, he carefully made his way towards the interesting hallway. Behind, his friends continued to examine the images in the Great Hall. They did not realize Hiccup was missing.  
Before stepping into the hallway, he drew Inferno, his fire sword, and prepared to light it up. He followed the light ray and soon found himself in a dark, creepy corridor. Almost no Berkian went in this hallway because of rumors that ghosts lived in it. Other rumors said it was the gate to Niflheim, but Niflheim or not, Hiccup had to figure out where the light ray was taking him. Therefore, he took a deep breath and stepped into the hallway.  
Back in the Great Hall, Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruff, Tuff, and Fishlegs met up with each other in the heart of it.  
“Find anything?” Astrid wanted to know, and Fishlegs shook his head,  
“No. What about you, Snotlout?”  
“Only my greatest fear,” was Snotlout’s reply, “Reading.” Sniffing, he blew his nose in his hands, causing Astrid to cringe.  
“Why should we read when we can just hop on our fire-breathing beasts and spit in the Light Dragon’s face?” Ruffnut asked, “I personally like that idea much better.”  
“Or cause another avalanche?” Tuffnut questioned.  
“Yeah,” agreed his sister, “Who’s all in favor?” Only she and Tuff raised their hands.  
The others merely stared. “Wait a minute.” Astrid said after a bit, and she searched the area, “Where’s Hiccup?”  
Hiccup continued to follow the ray of light. He tried not to cause too much noise in case someone or something was ready to ambush him at the end of the hall. Inferno stayed in his hand, and he did not take his finger off the switch that would turn it on. The deeper he traversed in the tunnel, the brighter the light he saw in the Great Hall. Finally, he reached the end, and a bright light flashed in his face. FLASH! However, he managed to open his eyes against it. This light did not glow as brightly as the Light Dragon, but it was still mysterious. Hiccup found himself standing in an empty stone room. All it had in it were a few barrels and a trap door. However, there was something more. Hiccup gasped and dropped Inferno. Sitting on a barrel in front of him was another cluster of light yellow crystals! There were only three in this bunch. The light ray Hiccup followed sliced through the cluster and created another mirage like the one in the Great Hall and his hut, except this mirage was different. He made his way to the most interesting image in the bunch and peered up to it. Light yellow dots shimmered all over his body, but none got in his eyes. What Hiccup was looking at was an image that showed a piece of land surrounded by water. A waterfall poured out from the side of it, and there were huge cliffs that stabbed the sky. Lined up in a perfect straight line above it was the sun and moon. Hiccup remembered the story Gobber and his father told him and his friends in the Chamber of Mystery. An island filled with waterfalls where the sun and moon meet their highest peak. Grass as green as a seasick man’s face, and a natural beauty that washes down from the heavens above. Hiccup could not believe what he was looking at.  
It was a map, but not just any map.

It was a map to Telemik.


	9. Secret of the Crystals

Hiccup had no words for his discovery.  
He tried to speak, but he was just so lost for words. “Uh, uh,” he stammered, and he brought his fingers to his lips, “Wha-what did I just find?” He knew it was a map to Telemik, but he had a hard time believing that literally everything he needed to know about the Light Dragon was in the crystals. Only about a minute or two later, the images projected on the wall faded. Toothless needed a break from lighting up the Dragon Eye. No longer did the ray of light shine through the new cluster of crystals, and no longer did the map shine in Hiccup’s face. He stood in complete utter silence in the dark. The only light came from a dying torch in the room. Eventually, thanks to Toothless’s sniffer, his friends found him. Ruff and Tuff, who were terrified of the creepy hallway before, had themselves glued to Fishleg’s shoulders. Snotlout tried to hold onto Astrid, but she slapped his hand away. For his comeback, Snotlout glued himself to Toothless instead. The dragon rolled his eyes, but he marched on.   
Together, the seven friends stopped over Inferno and glanced at Hiccup who was staring at the now blank wall. “Hiccup?” Astrid asked, “What did you find?” Hiccup did not move from where he stood. He looked like a talking statue.  
Without looking back at her, he told Astrid, “Bring me the Dragon Eye.”  
While Astrid was confused, she followed through with her friend’s request. As the friends waited for her to return, Fishlegs snapped Hiccup out of his trance. The young man resigned to sitting down with Toothless, and he pressed his back up against him.   
Snotlout laughed and picked up the new cluster of crystals he found. “Ho! Ho!” he laughed, “I can buy my own island with this!”  
“Snotlout, we’re not buying anything!” Hiccup sternly told him, “We’re going to add those crystals to our collection and start constructing the Crystal Crown!”  
“I was afraid you’d say that.” Snotlout grumbled, and he dropped his arms.  
“Believe me.” Hiccup told him, “It’s not about who’s rich and who’s poor. It’s about saving the world.”  
“Here you go, Hiccup,” a voice spoke behind him. Astrid. She just returned to the room with the Dragon Eye.  
“Thank you, Astrid.” Hiccup took the artifact out her hand and told Toothless, “Hang in there, bud. Just one more small flame.” Toothless obeyed and opened his mouth. As the map of Telemik displayed itself back on the wall, Hiccup told his friends, “Look what I just found, guys.” Curious, his friends approached him on either side and studied the magnificent view.  
Snotlout’s eyes widened, “No way.”  
“Is that…?” Fishlegs started, but Astrid went ahead and nodded,  
“Yes.”  
“It’s a map to Telemik.” Hiccup explained.  
“Telemik?” asked Ruffnut. Tuffnut spoke right after her.  
It was a twin thing, “Yeah, sis. Telemik is the place where our dear Hiccup is going to have everything stolen from him. No problem, Hiccster. I will make a wonderful new leader of the Dragon Riders.”  
“Ha! Ha!” Hiccup sarcastically laughed, “You’re funny, Tuff!”  
From off to the side, Astrid said, “Uh, guys? This isn’t just a map to Telemik.”  
Curious, Hiccup asked, “What is it?” and he came within reach of her. Astrid was standing at the next wall down. On that one, instead of showing Telemik, the image was a circle of seven islands, and in the heart of it was a crown. Just behind it and the seven islands was the Light Dragon’s heterochromatic eyes. “The Crystal Crown.” Hiccup said under his breath. As quick as a flash, he pulled out his notebook and pencil and sketched Astrid’s find.  
She pointed at it and questioned, “Do you know what this mirage is showing us?”  
Suddenly, Snotlout cheered and raised his hands, “New islands! Now we know where to go when we abandon Berk!”  
“Snotlout, we’re not abandoning Berk!” Hiccup repeated, “You are way off.” He slipped his pencil between his notebook’s pages and pointed it at the mirage, “This image is showing us where we will find the crystals in order to construct the crown. The seven islands represent the seven dragon classes, and if you look closely, you see the Light Dragon behind it all.”   
His friends squinted their eyes to see what he was looking at. “I see it!” Astrid said after a bit.  
“Same here!” Fishlegs agreed, and he hopped up and down with excitement.  
“Uh, not to be a burden,” Snotlout crossed his arms and tapped his foot, “but what is this telling us about the Light Dragon?”  
“Yeah, I thought we were just going to attack it head-on!” Ruffnut argued, “My bro and I will happily cause another avalanche.”  
“I see your point, Ruff,” Hiccup explained, and he plopped down on a barrel in front of the wall, “but what is the point of causing an avalanche when we don’t know what we’re going up against?”  
“What are you saying, Hiccup?” Astrid wanted to know.  
“Don’t you see?” he asked, and he glanced at each of his friends, even Toothless, “The Light Dragon is not just one dragon class. It is multiple.”  
“Multiple?” confusingly questioned Fishlegs.  
Hiccup nodded, “Yes. His eyes behind the seven islands say it all.” Here, he lifted his hand and pointed to each of the seven islands, “Naga is a bipedal dragon who draws his power from sunlight. When I see him in my dreams, he is always hiding behind a mass of light. He is very stealthy and sneaky, like a dragon from the Mystery class, and last I checked,” Hiccup glanced at the twins when he said this, “aren’t Barf and Belch a Hideous Zippleback?”  
“Hm, although I hate to admit it, you may have a point.” Tuffnut thoughtfully spoke.   
At the same time, he and Ruffnut curiously tapped their chins and said at the same time, “The Mystery class defines Barf and Belch.”  
Hiccup pulled his attention away from them and focused on Astrid, “Astrid, Stormfly is a Deadly Nadder, right? She uses her acute sense of smell to track down enemies. That puts her in the Tracker class. Now, Naga is a bit different, but he tracks his victims down by psychologically torturing them. Trust me. I know. So no doubt about it, Naga has a little bit of Tracker in him.”  
“Hm.” Astrid also lifted her hand and tapped her chin to think.   
“And, Fishlegs.” Hiccup continued. His eyes moved over to the curious Fishlegs, “A Boulder class dragon, like Meatlug, is associated with the earth, and what we heard in the Chamber of Mystery, Naga lives on Telemik Island where he feeds off the high cliffs. Sure, his body consists of mostly prisms, but it is very tough and not easily broken. Doesn’t that sound like Meatlug to you?”  
“It does.” Fishlegs agreed, “Oh, Meatlug. I miss you already, girl.”  
Snotlout was the next friend Hiccup called out, “All right, Snotlout. Your dragon is Hookfang, a Monstrous Nightmare who belongs to the Stoker class. Stokers have the nickname ‘hot-headed fire breathers.’ When the Monstrous Nightmare feels threatened, it sets itself on fire. As I mentioned before, Naga draws his power from sunlight, and according to my astronomical studies, the Sun is a ball of fire floating in outer space. Therefore, when Naga feeds off it, that fire builds up inside his body which can cause devastating attacks.”  
“And here I thought Hookfang was just a dragon.” Snotlout grumbled.  
“Now, let’s think about Heather.” For this description, Hiccup met eyes with all his friends, “Heather’s dragon is Windshear, a Razorwhip who belongs to the Sharp class of dragons. All Sharp class dragons have sharp body parts, such as spikes, that they are able to launch at their enemies. I noticed in my dreams that Naga also has sharp body parts. The majority of his body is prisms, and he has spikes on his tail as well as a mouth filled with razor-sharp fangs. I am sure that whenever he has the chance, he launches spikes at his enemies just like Windshear and Stormfly. Curiously, we do not have any Tidal class dragons in our group, but I can go ahead and tell you that Naga is also part Tidal Dragon. Do you remember when we were in the Chamber of Mystery; Dad said the Vikings found him in a huge lake in the heart of the island? Tidal Dragons thrive in or near water, so why was Naga in that lake if he never adapted to watery conditions? Finally, Toothless.” As soon as Hiccup said his dragon’s name, Toothless stopped lighting up the Dragon Eye and approached his friend’s side. Hiccup scratched him under the chin and explained, “Toothless is a Night Fury, a Strike dragon. Strike dragons are very powerful, which that already sounds like Naga. They can navigate whatever environment they face without much difficulty and launch incredible attacks. Most of these attacks are pinpoint with accuracy. Strike dragons also have very powerful jaws. When I saw Naga in the Chamber of Emptiness, he launched a Strike-like attack at Toothless and me. It looked like just a lighter version of Toothless’s Plasma Blast. Therefore, with all this said, I think it’s safe to say that Naga is a little bit of everything.”  
Tuffnut looked a little bit jealous of Hiccup’s fabulous explanation.   
He even crossed his arms and asked, “How do you know this, Hiccup?” His eyes moved over to Fishlegs, “I thought Fishlegs was supposed to be the most knowledgeable about the dragon classes here.”  
Hiccup rubbed his nose and told him, “For your information, Tuff, I’ve seen Naga more than you think. I also paid attention to the story my dad and Gobber told us in the chamber. Since this morning, my mind has just been on Naga.”  
“I’m with him.” Astrid quickly said before the two could argue further. Approaching Hiccup, she rested her hand on his shoulder, “I’ve also seen the Light Dragon, and I agree that it is a little bit of everything. After all, Hiccup and I each had a dream about it.”  
For comfort, Hiccup put his hand on Astrid’s as he explained the plan, “So this is the plan. We all need to travel to these seven islands and find the missing crystals of Naga. I’m sure each crystal holds a little bit of his multiple dragon classes. Think about it. Seven islands, seven dragon classes, and Naga is in the heart of it all. The mirage proved that.”  
“Where should we start?” Astrid wanted to know. Hiccup thought about this. His mind returned to the Chamber of Mystery where he saw the sparkle in the pillar. That was a good place to start. That sparkle had to be important in some way, and he was eager to figure out what.  
With this in mind, the young man hopped to his feet and faced his friends, “Mount up, Riders. We’re going to the Chamber of Mystery.”


	10. Return to the Chamber

Under the light of the full moon, Hiccup and his friends zoomed through Berk on their dragons and headed towards the forest. Hiccup and Astrid, considering they were the two heroes, each wore a satchel over their necks where they kept the crystals they found so far. Hiccup, aside from the crystals, also carried the Dragon Eye in case he needed to use it again. Within a mere five minutes, the teens glided under the forest’s tall treetops.  
With hair waving in the wind, Hiccup glanced at his friends and asked, “So, how did you guys find Toothless and me? Surely you didn’t dive in the hole after us, right?”  
Astrid, who soared next to him, chuckled and explained, “Of course not. Quite the opposite in fact. Follow us.” She peered into Stormfly’s eyes and patted her neck, “Go, Stormfly.” Stormfly nodded and moved herself up to the front of the group. Hookfang, Snotlout’s dragon, flapped his wings and joined the dragon and her Rider.  
To Astrid, he said, “I think somebody should keep you out of trouble, babe. No worries. Hookfang and I the perfect bodyguards.” Unfortunately, as soon as he said that…CRASH! Hookfang crashed into a tree, and both he and his Rider toppled to the ground. They landed face first in a puddle of mud. SPLAT! Fishlegs, Ruff, Tuff, and Astrid burst out laughing, but Hiccup stayed quiet. He was not amused by this childish behavior. Nor was Toothless. Their faces told it all.  
Astrid stopped over the fallen Snotlout and Hookfang and put the back of her hand to her temple, “Oh, Snotlout. However will I survive without you?” The sarcasm in her voice was almost too obvious. Bubbles popped up in the mud puddle as Snotlout accidentally cursed underwater. When he pulled out his head, mud dripped from his entire upper body – head and all.  
Coughing, he blew his nose between two fingers and glanced at them. “Oh yeah,” he spoke in a disgusted voice, “There it is.” Stormfly picked him up with her claws and dropped him back into his saddle on Hookfang’s neck.  
Barf and Belch appeared next to the Monstrous Nightmare, and Tuffnut said, “Now, now, my good pupil. Don’t cry. It’s your own fault your moral ambiguity has been shattered.”  
“You can join our club.” Ruffnut joked, “We specialize in failure.”  
“Oh!” Tuffnut gasped, “I’ve always wanted another member for our club! What do you say, Belch?” Irritated, Snotlout growled and glared at him.  
His mind shifted back to Astrid where he came up with an excuse for his failure, “The full moon blinded me, Astrid. Why don’t we call the Light Dragon to take it away too?”  
Astrid was only half-listening, but this was because she heard something over the wind. “Shh!” she snapped, and she held her hand out to Snotlout, “Do you hear that?”  
“Oh, you mean those horrific laughs the twins have?” Snotlout questioned in a sarcastic voice, “Sure. Why wouldn’t I?”  
“Not that.” Astrid suddenly turned her head and peered into the deep dark forest ahead, “That.”  
Toothless soon appeared next to her, and Hiccup asked, “What do you hear, Astrid?”  
“Listen,” was the only word that escaped Astrid’s lips. The teens did, but they heard nothing. “Don’t you hear it?” Astrid questioned.  
Ruffnut suddenly gagged, and she glanced at her brother, “Ugh. Was that you?”  
“Hey watch it!” Tuffnut angrily spoke, “I’ll let you know that the last time I bathed was last week, and I consider that a record!”  
“No.” Hiccup shook his head and carefully glided forward with Toothless, “It sounds like a voice.” As soon as he made that observation, another gust of wind passed through the forest, and from it came a female voice – what Astrid heard.  
She sounded mystical, magical, and mysterious, _“Come, my children. Your island. Your people. They are counting on you. Follow me to the Chamber, and I shall share my magic with you.”_  
“She wants us to follow her.” Hiccup told his friends.  
He started forward again, but Astrid stopped him, “Hiccup, wait!” She gave Stormfly’s sides a small kick, and the dragon hurried to the young man. She stopped in front of him and Toothless, and Astrid asked in a worried voice, “What if this is a trap?”  
“Oh, come on.” Snotlout, who finally heard the voice, groaned, “What harm can a voice that beautiful do to us?”  
“We are living in perilous times.” Astrid explained, “We don’t know who we can and cannot trust.”  
Hiccup considered her words and peered over his shoulder to Fishlegs who rode on Meatlug. “Fishlegs?” he asked, “Is there anything in your book about an old legend in this forest?”  
“Hm.” Curious, Fishlegs flipped through his book and skimmed each page, “Not that I’m aware of.”  
“See?” Astrid asked, “If the voice is not a thing of legend, then why should we trust it?”  
“I see your point.” Hiccup spoke, “Very well, then. We won’t follow that voice.”  
“Aw.” Snotlout groaned, “But what if that woman is the woman of my dreams? I mean, next to Astrid of course.”  
“Look.” Astrid elucidated in a stern voice, “With Hiccup in his condition, it’s probably best that we don’t drag ourselves into a situation that potentially has to do with the Light Dragon. We have one goal. Return to the Chamber of Mystery and pick up that crystal he saw.”  
Twenty minutes later, Hiccup asked, “What is this place?” and brought Toothless to a halt. After flying through a deep, dark forest, the friends finally found something. Well, it was more Hiccup and Toothless found it. The others already knew what it was. All dragons and Riders hovered in a huge clearing, in which the light of the full moon shone down on what looked like an old ruin. Surrounding them were old, broken-down, wooden huts as well as a trench. Over the years, the walls of the trench caved in, so now it was nothing more than a narrow opening in the ground. A human could fit through it but not a dragon. Hiccup and Toothless landed on a platform and studied their surroundings. “We’re in a ruin of some sort, bud.” Hiccup told his dragon friend, and Toothless nodded with agreement.  
Astrid landed next to them and nodded, “That’s right. Stoick and Gobber said this was the first village Berkians built when they moved their settlement from underground to the outside world. They did this because they wanted to prove to the dragons they weren’t scared of them.”  
“Wow,” was all Hiccup could say. He pulled his feet out of Toothless’s saddle stirrups and hopped onto the platform. With his hands on his hips, he asked Astrid, “So this is where you, Gobber, Dad, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruff and Tuff entered from when you came looking for Toothless and I?”  
“Yes.” Astrid said with a nod.  
Hiccup and Toothless broke off from the group of Riders and dragons and did a little bit of exploring. Once again, Hiccup’s curiosity had hit a homerun. He and Toothless walked through the frames of huts and checked to see if the villagers left anything behind (such as a crystal). They also made their way to the trench and felt around in the mounds of dirt surrounding it. “See anything, bud?” Hiccup asked his dragon. Toothless shook his head no. Even his sniffer didn’t track down anything. Hiccup refused to give up. “There has to be something,” he continued, “If this village dates back to at least 400 years, then there has to be a crystal somewhere.” Toothless wasn’t sure. He just followed his rider in case someone or something ambushed them and he had to jump in to protect him.  
The friends followed the trench for a short while, but then they heard it. The voice. Nice and clear. Astrid heard the same voice on the Riders’ way to the ruins. That wasn’t the only thing. A mysterious, light blue figure accompanied the voice. The mystical being stood near the end of the trench with her hands at her heart, and she seemed to stare at Hiccup and Toothless.  
While she didn’t have a clear face, Hiccup did not need one to tell that she was beautiful. “Come, my child,” she said with her hands still at her heart, _“One must use one’s own strength to lead the way.”_ “One must use one’s own strength to lead the way?” What did she mean by that? It only got more confusing from there, _“I have a gift for you, but in order to receive it, you must prove yourself to me.”_ Huh? Hiccup was so confused. He had to be dreaming. No way did this beautiful, supernatural oracle exist. It was just too perfect. _“I am afraid,”_ she continued, _“I feel there is a calamity just around the corner. My gift will help you on your quest to recover the Crystal Crown.”_ Before Hiccup could open his mouth to ask her a question, CRACK! The rocks under his feet shattered, and he fell into the trench! Up above, Toothless roared with panic, but there was no way he could join his friend. The trench’s opening was too small. He clawed at the walls and swished his tail back and forth. Dust, stones, and scraps of old buildings showered down on Hiccup who sat up and shook out his head.  
As quick as a flash, he looked up to Toothless and yelled, “I’m okay, Toothless!” While Toothless stopped clawing at the wall, there was still plenty of fear in his big, green eyes.  
Down in the trench, Hiccup rose to his feet and brushed himself down. He checked his satchel to make sure he still had the crystals and sighed with relief when he saw he did. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the oracle appeared in front of him! Her appearance startled him so much that he stumbled back and ended up on the ground again.  
Since her body was primarily light energy, the oracle still did not have a clear face, but she could still somehow talk in that mesmerizing voice of hers, _“Welcome, my boy, to the other side of the Chamber of Mystery. Now I will take you to where you shall receive your gift. If you dare. This is something you must do alone. Your friends can help, but they are not the chosen ones. You are the one. The one meant to save us all.”_ Then, just like that, poof! She disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared at the end of the chamber, this time underground with Hiccup. Thousands of questions rushed through his brain, but he was curious about the “gift” the oracle mentioned. He inhaled a breath of air and made his way towards the mysterious, luminary figure at the end of the trench. If what she said was true, then perhaps there was some hope for Hiccup and Astrid’s battle against the Light Dragon after all.  
The incredible, full moon covered the still ocean surrounding Berk with a luminous, white light. Deep in the ocean slept Naga. A faded, light yellow bubble surrounded him as he floated over the rocky seabed.  
Something, a feeling of some sort, pulled him out of his dreamlike state, and he slowly opened his heterochromatic eyes.  
A telepathic message whipped through his brain, and the bubble popped around him. _“Welcome, my boy,”_ he telepathically answered back to whomever he was communicating with, _“For you are close to your goal but still quite far away.”_ The dragon unwrapped his huge, prism wings from around his body and gave them a flap. Pebbles and sand polluted the watery atmosphere as he took off for the shore. His dim body splashed out of the ocean, SPLASH, and he made his way to the Isle of Berk. Before reaching it, he changed his course of action and shot straight up. With another flap of his enormous wings, he made his way towards the full moon. _“Follow me,”_ he telepathically spoke as the moon glowed brighter and brighter the closer he approached, and then…


	11. Seduction

“Snotlout! You and Hookfang were supposed to look out for Hiccup and Toothless!” Astrid shouted at the cowardly Viking back in the ruins.  
“It’s not my fault!” he argued back, “Hookfang fell asleep on the job!”  
As soon as he said that, Hookfang shuffled next to him and growled in a way that said, “I did not!” Astrid did not fall for Snotlout’s excuse. She merely crossed her arms and tapped her foot.  
Within another minute, Ruff, Tuff, and Fishlegs hurried to the arguing friends with their dragons following close behind.  
Tuffnut had a proud look on his face and yelled, “Yo, Riders! You’ll never believe what I just found!”  
Astrid immediately lost her glare and became interested when he said that. “What?” she curiously asked, “Is it Hiccup? Toothless? Another crystal?”  
Tuffnut shook his head, “Nope. It’s something even better!”  
“What?” Astrid was now incredibly interested. So were the other Riders.  
Ruffnut crossed her arms and chuckled, “Oh, you’ll love it!”  
“So there I was.” Tuffnut explained in an epic voice, “Standing at the edge of the trench, I thought about the chicken all alone on Dragon’s Edge. How much he must miss me, and how much I miss him. My eye wondered. I saw something. Something that extends well beyond the boundaries of dragon taming. I never thought I would find something as majestic as it. As charming and as frightening. As regal and cruel. As…”  
“Oh, for the love of Thor!” Astrid yelled, “Just get to the point already!” Tuffnut looked slightly offended.  
He stomped his foot and clenched his fists, “How dare the little lady interrupts a ruler of Thorstonton II! But if you say so. I give to you…” Tuff wobbled in the direction of one of the broken huts and reached behind it, “Another Night Fury!” Except, it was only Toothless he pulled out from behind the ruin. Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Astrid stared. At the same time, they each did a facepalm and shook their heads. Slap! Slap! Slap! Shake. Shake. Shake. “Isn’t it an amazing specimen of a dragon?” Tuffnut asked them, and Ruffnut spoke right after him,  
“Who knew Toothless had a twin? No longer are we the only ones! Look! It too has a prosthetic tail!” She picked up Toothless’s prosthetic tailfin and waved it at the Riders.  
Tuffnut pointed both hands at Toothless’s saddle, “Finally, someone else other than Hiccup has tamed a Night Fury!”  
Astrid dropped her hand from her face and yelled at them, “You two muttonheads are unbelievable! That’s Toothless!” The twins froze when she said that.  
Together, they studied Toothless up and down, and finally realizing their mistake, said, “Oh yeah.”  
Ruffnut waved at him, “Hey, Toothless,” and Tuffnut mimicked her,  
“How’s it going?” Toothless scoffed and rolled his eyes.  
Eventually, everyone recovered from the twins’ “amazing” discovery, and Astrid came within reach of the Night Fury.  
“Here’s Toothless,” she observed, “but where’s Hiccup?” Another flash of worry washed across Toothless’s face, and he turned in the direction where he last saw Hiccup – the trench. He led the Riders and their dragons to it. When the friends reached the trench, they peered into the narrow opening and looked for their friend. Astrid brought the side of her hand to her mouth and called, “Hiccup?!”

Hiccup was already too deep in the trench to hear her. He followed the mysterious oracle to an extremely narrow tunnel where he had to weave his way around rocks in order to keep up with her. He rested his palm on the wall and used his other hand to push one rock a half inch closer to the wall. Unfortunately, when he tried climbing over a very large rock, his metal leg slipped, and he fell. The prosthetic crashed into a crack in the floor and left the young man stuck once again.  
He glanced at it and groaned, “Uh oh. Not again.” On the bright side, at least it was his metal leg in the crack and not his other one, so it didn’t necessarily hurt him. However, he tried to think of a way to release it without removing the prosthetic, but it was difficult. Hiccup grabbed it and pulled as hard as he could, but his leg refused to move. He jerked to the point that what he had left of his left leg did start to hurt. Before he could strain himself even further, the luminary came to his rescue. She appeared over the struggling, young man and gently slipped his leg out of the crack with one small tug, just like that. Hiccup did not feel her fingers around his leg. He only felt the warm light her body gave off. Did she even have hands, or was she technically just a blob of light that somehow came to life? On the other hand, beyond all his questions – now that she was close to his face he could finally see her facial features. She was stunningly beautiful, had slivery waving hair, but what confused him were her eyes. Just like the Light Dragon, they were heterochromatic.  
As she moved away from Hiccup, she again placed her hands to her chest and told him, _“Now you are free.”_  
“Tha-Thank you,” he stuttered, and he rose to his feet, but his eyes did not leave the oracle’s own eyes. He found it very strange that they were heterochromatic like Naga’s. A feeling surged through his body. Could he trust her? Astrid was right. In perilous times such as these not only with the Light Dragon but the Middle Ages overall, it was difficult to figure out who you could and could not trust.

Hookfang, Barf, Belch, Meatlug, Stormfly, and Toothless did not appreciate the fact that they could not fit into the narrow trench and follow their Riders. Hookfang, Barf, and Belch, considering they were the skinniest of the dragons, tried to squeeze through the opening, but they ended up getting themselves stuck, and their Riders had to pull them out. Toothless again started to claw at the trench’s walls, but he did not succeed in opening up the gap. He never went on a single adventure without Hiccup, so this was entirely new to him. One at a time, the Riders hugged their dragons and told them they would be back soon.  
Fishlegs, considering he loved Meatlug as much as a parent loves their child, glued himself to her leg, and Astrid had to pull him off. “I can’t leave you, girl!” he told his dragon, and Meatlug roared with agreement.  
“Fishlegs!” Astrid yelled, “You’ll see her again!” With that, she gave Fishlegs a small push, and he tumbled into the narrow trench where he joined Snotlout and the twins. Unfortunately, he landed on Snotlout’s back and almost crushed him. Astrid, who was soon the only Rider still standing in the outside world, after saying goodbye to Stormfly, she grasped either side of Toothless’s head and pulled it close to her. The two bumped foreheads and the young woman told the panicked Night Fury, “Don’t worry, Toothless. We’ll bring Hiccup back to you. I promise.”  
_“Please make sure he’s safe.”_ Toothless growled quietly. The two pulled their heads away, and Astrid gave him a gentle pat. She fell to her knees, grabbed the edge of the trench, and started her climb down into the deep, dark unknown. Once again, Toothless approached the edge of it, and he watched her.  
Just as Snotlout pushed Fishlegs off him, Astrid hopped down from the wall, and her eyes rolled up to the dragons. “We’ll be back,” she promised, “You can count on it. Take care of yourselves. All right, Riders.” She turned to face the others, “Let’s march!” With the dragons still watching, the Riders stood up straight and started their journey in the Chamber of Mystery.  
Behind, Toothless growled sadly and lied down.

  
He placed his head on his paws and watched as the teens walked away. _“Oh, Hiccup,”_ he seemed to cry, _“I miss you.”_  
As Hiccup and the oracle traveled further and further into the Chamber, the walls eventually opened up, which this made it significantly easier for Hiccup to keep up with the mysterious figure. No longer did he have to climb over so many rocks. However, he did notice that the deeper he and the oracle roamed, he saw a faded, blue light at the end of the tunnel. What was it? Where was the oracle taking him? She stopped flying and turned to see him struggling as he attempted to climb over another large rock.  
While he managed to reach for the top of it, he kept on sliding down when his legs got involved. “Where are you taking me?” he asked as he did this, “Honestly, I don’t know why I’m still following you. I don’t know if I can trust you.” Eyes glowing gently, the oracle did not answer his question. She merely made her way to him and pushed his back to help him over the rock. Hiccup ended up doing a small flip, and he landed on his butt in the dirt. He used the rock to help him stand and continued to chase after the luminous figure, “Are you not going to answer any of my questions? I thought you said you would help Astrid and me with our fight against the Light Dragon.”  
_“Astrid?”_ the oracle finally asked, _“Oh no.”_ She shook her head and met Hiccup’s eyes, _“Sure, you and Astrid are the Two Heroes meant to find the Light Dragon’s crystals, but at the end of the day, the final battle narrows down to just you.”_  
“What?” Hiccup froze right on his tracks, “Are you saying I have to fight that multi-classed dragon beast myself?”  
The oracle nodded, _“Sure am,”_ and she backed away from him, _“Pain will guide you, son. Your busted leg is only an inkling of what you’ll have to face.”_  
“Okay and how is this supposed to make me feel better?” Hiccup shivered at just the word “pain,” “What pain do you mean?”  
The oracle ignored him, _“Ah ha, here we are. This, son, is the Crystal Chamber.”_  
“Crystal Chamber?” Hiccup climbed over one more rock and scurried to the tunnel where he saw the blue light from the other end of the tunnel, “First, we have the Chamber of Emptiness, then the Chamber of Mystery, and now the Crystal Chamber? How many more chambers are in this place?” However, Hiccup’s eyes widened at what he saw laid out in front of him, and his jaw dropped to the ground.  
The luminous oracle led him to a place of wonders. Just looking at it, all of Hiccup’s worries washed away. He stood in a small, shallow river, and all around him were walls and walls covered with beautiful, blue crystals! Crystals even covered the ceiling. They acted as mirrors, so aside from the mystical, blue light they gave off, there were also multiple Hiccups reflected in the walls, ceiling, and even the river. Just seeing all them caused his head to spin. _“What the?”_ he mouthed to himself. He had to be dreaming. Berk did not have such a wondrous tunnel under his village’s forest. The oracle chuckled and landed on a crystal rock next to the riverbed. She placed her hands behind her back and watched as the young man slowly approached one of his many reflections. His jaw stayed drop; he was just so amazed right now. Slowly lifting his hand, he reached for the reflection. “Lu-Luminary,” he told himself, and he placed his palm on the crystal mirror. However, he snapped it back; SNAP, when suddenly, his reflection came to life!  
Hiccup in the mirror placed his hand on his hip and asked, “Why do you look so surprised?”  
“AHHHH!” the real Hiccup screamed. He backed away from the mirror but tripped over his own foot. SPLASH! He landed on his hands and backside in the shallow river.  
Reflection Hiccup laughed and admitted, “Oh! You’re so easily startled! I like it!” Shaking from head to toe, Hiccup rose to his feet and stumbled back to the wall. He punched it to make sure this wasn’t a prank, and sure enough, it wasn’t. His reflection was talking and moving on its own! If that wasn’t strange enough, his other reflections came to life!  
One reflection from the other side of the riverbed called, “Wow! You’re taller than I thought!” and another one said,  
“However, in a way, you are still the skinny boy you were three years ago.”  
“What in the name of Thor is happening right now?” Hiccup asked Reflection #1.

  
“Hiccup!” a familiar voice suddenly shouted at him right now. Astrid! Thank Thor! His friends found him! Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruff, and Tuff sprinted through the blue river water, and their own reflections joined Hiccup’s. Reflections of teenagers now filled the whole Chamber, and just like Hiccup’s, theirs came to life too. Except, each teen had a different reaction to them.  
Snotlout yelped and tried to run away from his, but he could not escape it. “Aw, come on. Don’t you want to be friends?” his reflection on the other end of the tunnel asked. Again, Snotlout yelped, and he ran all over the place. Fishleg’s reflection fascinated Fishlegs, unlike Snotlout.  
They quickly became friends. “It’s so nice to have someone else to talk to.” Reflection Fishlegs admitted, and Fishlegs laughed like a little kid.  
“Oh! This is fascinating!” he chuckled. Slap! He slapped his palms up against the mirror and kissed his reflection. Ruffnut and Tuffnut also quickly became friends with their reflections. They were having contest of who could make the most ridiculous or silly faces.  
Ruffnut rubbed her chin and told her reflection, “Oh, that’s pretty silly, but can you beat this?” She stuck out her tongue and lifted her eyelids with her fingers. Her reflection responded by making a similar face, except hers looked like she was dying. Between Tuffnut and his reflection, they each had a very goofy expression. Tuffnut’s expression looked like it was a cross between a serious and not so serious face. His reflection went beyond. He puffed out his cheeks, smacked his lips together, and went cross-eyed. For the finale, he put his index fingers behind his ears. It was hard to say who won the competition. Whom do you think? The twins or the reflections?  
Astrid did not stop to say _hi_ to her own one.  
Instead, she hurried to Hiccup and asked, “Are you all right?”  
“Ye-Yeah,” he stuttered, “But how-how did you guys find me? Where are the dragons?”  
“They stayed behind. They couldn’t fit down here. Poor Toothless was devastated. We just followed your footprints in the dirt. We…” Then her eyes started to roam, “What is this place?”  
_“The Crystal Chamber,”_ the mysterious oracle answered before Hiccup could. She hopped up from the rock she was resting on and soared to the two friends. At the sight of her, Astrid yelped and leaped behind Hiccup. She took his shoulder and hid behind it. It wasn’t long until the oracle floated in front of the two friends, and she again placed her hands to her chest. Nodding at Astrid, she said, _“Hello, Astrid. Welcome. While two heroes are needed, only one will succeed.”_  
“Who are you?” Astrid sternly asked.  
When she recovered from her scare, she dove out from behind Hiccup and threatened the oracle with her axe, “If you plan on hurting Hiccup, you’re going to have to go through me!”  
“Whoa! Whoa!” Hiccup sarcastically laughed. He grabbed hold of the axe and told his friend, “Let’s lose this accessory,” taking it out of her hands.  
The axe did not frighten the oracle. I mean, what could hurt her? She was just a blob of light energy. Or was she? The mysterious being’s heterochromatic eyes flickered and she backed away from the friends. Her arms flapped like wings, and she stopped in front of the rock she was just resting on. Fishlegs, Ruff, Tuff, and terrified Snotlout rushed to their friends and grabbed hold of their arms.  
Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs tried to get them to come meet their reflections, but Snotlout just asked, “How do you get out of this ridiculous Chamber? Is there any way I can get rid of my reflection?” He tugged Hiccup’s arm and dragged him towards the tunnel’s entrance when he saw his reflection waving at him, “Let’s get out of here!”  
“Not yet.” Without looking back at his friend, Hiccup removed his hand and turned to face the oracle again.  
She clenched her fists and told the friends in her wondrous voice,  
_“I am the oracle of this chamber. A champion, a hero who sought you out to help you.”_ Although, as soon as she said that, her blue body flickered, and very faintly, a light yellow light engulfed it. Astrid, not entirely sure if she could trust her, put her hand up to Hiccup’s chest and gently pushed him back. She heard this same voice in the forest. This voice was the voice that she told her friends not to follow. Moreover, what did Hiccup do? He followed it! Although, another feeling that made her slightly uncomfortable was a slight feeling of jealousy. She did not like the way Hiccup looked the oracle in her heterochromatic eyes. Seduction.  
She felt like she was seducing him. “Hey, Hiccup!” a voice suddenly spoke next to them. It was Tuffnut. With a smile on his face, he pointed at the crystal walls and ceiling and guessed, “We have everything we need right here! We don’t need to travel those seven islands after all! We can make the Crystal Crown out of all these crystals instead!”  
_“It won’t work,”_ spoke the oracle, and she inched closer to Hiccup Horrendous Haddock. Seeing this, Astrid pushed him back another couple of inches. She tried to take the axe out of his hands, but he pulled it away from her. The bruise on his temple started to glow again, and this alarmed the young woman even more. _“These crystals do not belong to me,”_ the oracle continued. Her eyes roamed around the chamber, but then they landed on Hiccup again. She seemed to stare into his soul, and he stared back, as if falling under a spell. The luminary figure edged even closer, and this made Astrid even more uncomfortable. She narrowed her eyebrows and ripped her axe out of Hiccup’s hands.  
Shoving him with her back, she leaped in front of him and pointed the weapon’s tip at the figure’s heart, “Get away from him!”  
“Astrid, stop!” Hiccup yelled at his friend.  
He tried to pull the axe out of her hands again, but Astrid pushed him with her boot. _“I feel your anger,”_ the oracle told the furious, young woman, _“But there is something I must discuss with him myself. Only then will I give him his gift.”_  
“Gift? What do you mean ‘gift?’” Not only did the oracle make Astrid nervous. She also made Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruff, and Tuff nervous. They too reached for Hiccup and started to pull him away from her.  
“Guys, quit it!” the young man snapped, “We can trust her!” He ripped his arms free from his friends’ grasps and headed towards the oracle.  
“Hiccup, stop!” Astrid yelled, “Stop! She’s seducing you! I think she’s Naga!”  
“Naga? What gave you a ridiculous idea like that?” There was no way this beautiful oracle was the Viking’s greatest threat. Astrid, Ruff, Tuff, Fishlegs, and Snotlout rushed after their friend, but the oracle sensed them coming. As quick as a flash, she looked over her shoulder, and her heterochromatic eyes glittered. As soon as they did, a light wall shaped like a bubble appeared around the friends! The oracle trapped them!  
The friends gasped and glanced at their reflections who waved and smiled menacingly. “Oh.” Snotlout sobbed, “We’re all going to die down here!”  
Astrid punched the light wall’s surface with the side of her fist and yelled at her friend, “Hiccup! Run!”  
_“Please don’t fear me,”_ the oracle begged, _“I don’t want to hurt him. I just need to speak with him. Alone.”_  
“We’re not falling for your lies, Naga!” Astrid snapped, “Hiccup is smarter than you think!” Again, she glanced at her friend, “Hiccup, listen to me! You need to get out of here! We’ll be okay!”  
“Okay?!” Snotlout yelled, “You’re kidding, right? We’re trapped in a light bubble with a bunch of haunted reflections laughing at us!”  
“And here we are.” Tuffnut spoke next, “Trapped in our own kingdom.”  
“It seems like just three hours ago we were still causing chaos.” Ruffnut sighed.

  
Hiccup gasped as a light yellow light suddenly flickered in his green eyes. However, he still did not run. Maybe he should have listened to Astrid.  
The oracle offered him her hand and said in a sweet, seducing voice, _“Take my hand, kid, and I will escort you to the heart of the Crystal Chamber.”_ Hiccup’s eyes landed on the hand, and he stared at it. His eyes continued to flicker, and he blocked out all the yelling of his friends.

  
Back in the ruins at the top of the narrow trench, Toothless felt that his best friend was in danger. Roaring, he leaped to his feet and showed his teeth to the moon. Meatlug, Barf, Belch, Hookfang, and Stormfly watched with bewildered looks on their faces as he started to rapidly claw at the trench’s wall again. Backing away, he opened his mouth and shot a Plasma Blast at it. Smash! The attack only succeeded in dumping more rock and debris in the trench. Continuing to roar, Toothless opened his wings and tried to fly, but he fell to the ground on his side. His tail. Without Hiccup on his back, there was no way he could fly. Did the dragon give up, though? No, he did not. He rushed around the ruins and searched for another way to get into the chamber. His dragon friends helped him. They also had a feeling that something had happened to their Riders. Toothless dove nose first into a larger crack of the trench but became stuck. Pulling his nose free, he stomped the ground and shot numerous Plasma Blasts into the tunnel.  
Just as he was giving up hope, he heard Barf and Belch roaring, _“Over here!”_ at him. They found something. It was a huge clearing under one of the broken down huts. The clearing consisted of a tunnel large enough for dragons to squeeze through. Where did it lead to, though? Would it take the dragons to their Riders?

  
In the Crystal Chamber, Hiccup reached for the oracle’s hand.  
By now, all his friends banged the light wall and shouted at him, “Don’t do it, Hiccup! Don’t do it!” but Hiccup paid them no attention.  
_“Take my hand, Hiccup,”_ the oracle sweetly told him, _“And I will take you to a place that will change your world forever. It is a place of awe. A place where the faeries dance under the moonlight.”_  
“A place where the faeries danced under the moonlight.” That sounded quite nice. Very serene, but it did sound like seduction. Was this oracle evil, though? What if Naga just got in her head, like how he got into Hiccup’s?  
Things took a bit of a twist here. Just before Hiccup and the oracle’s fingers touched, the sweet oracle suddenly changed her personality. She lifted her other hand and snatched the teen’s upper left arm, his dominant hand and arm. As soon as she did, she burned it! A burning sensation overtook Hiccup’s entire upper arm, and he yelled, “OW!” pulling it away.  
“Stop!” Astrid again punched the bubble’s wall, “You’re hurting him! I thought you said you didn’t want to hurt him!” The oracle refused to listen to her. As Hiccup cradled his burned arm, he backed away from her.  
Unfortunately, her sweet voice drew him right back in her trap, _“You can trust me. Forgive me. I didn’t mean to hurt you. Please. You are so close to receiving your gift. Only a little more to go.”_  
Just before her seduction could succeed with Stage 2, a roar suddenly came from the end of the tunnel. The roar of a Night Fury. Barf and Belch saved the day. Not only did the tunnel they found lead to the Crystal Chamber, it was a shortcut to it. As quick as a flash, Toothless leaped over the light bubble containing Fishlegs, Astrid, Ruff, Tuff, and Snotlout and rushed towards his friend.  
At the sight of him, Astrid shouted, “Toothless! How did you get down here?!” Not answering, Toothless tackled Hiccup with his forehead and pulled him away from the oracle. The young man landed hard on his back and yelled. Toothless hovered over him and growled at the enemy. Sitting up, Hiccup clutched his arm and glared too. If there is one thing you should know about the world of dragons, do not mess with him and Toothless.  
Just looking at them, the oracle felt their connection and told herself, _“A Night Fury. Fine.”_ Standing up straight, she faced the group of friends, _“If that’s the way you want to play.”_ Stormfly, Meatlug, Hookfang, Barf, and Belch stopped at the light bubble and pawed at their riders. Now glaring, the mysterious, luminous oracle backed away from the group and planted herself in the heart of the river, _“I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice.”_ What did she mean by that?  
At the same time, Hiccup and Astrid’s satchels glowed up as the crystals inside them gave off an excessive amount of light energy. The walls and ceiling of the Crystal Chamber glowed a bright yellow, and light rays bounced off them. They made their way to the oracle, and she sucked the energy in. In the bubble, Ruff, Tuff, and Snotlout yelled and hugged each other. What was going on here? As the oracle sucked in more and more light energy, her body started to change. She grew taller, her arms changed into wings, and claws appeared on her feet. Before long, she grew so tall that her head almost touched the chamber’s ceiling. A pair of razor sharp fangs appeared in her mouth, and it changed into a bill. Her head took on the form of the Light Dragon’s head. However, her eyes stayed the same – heterochromatic. The teen’s reflections faded from the wall as she stole all the light from the Chamber’s crystals, and that was it. In the place of the beautiful, magical oracle was an enormous, thirty-foot tall, bipedal dragon. Naga!


	12. “Erlkönig”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note: "Erlkönig" is the name of a song by Franz Shubert, and it is what I based Naga off of, as well as this story overall. The legend of the Erlkönig (or "Elf King" in English) is pretty straightforward. He seduces you, and if he touches you, you're dead. That's it. If anyone is curious about the song, I am posting a link to this document, so you can better idea of what exactly is going on. Do not fret! The video has English subtitles!
> 
> youtube.com/watch?v=ao8DGnCBApw

Snotlout pointed at the immense dragon in front of him and his friends and shouted,  
“What is that thing?! That is not a dragon!” Ruff and Tuff were so surprised that they fell over and fainted. Plop! Naga flapped his huge, crystalline wings and roared his familiar, metal-screeching roar! SCREEEEEEECH!!  
Astrid, Hiccup, Snotlout, and Fishlegs slapped their hands to their ears, and Hiccup screamed in pain, “AHHH!!”  
With one eye open, Astrid yelled, “Hiccup! Fight it! Don’t let him torture you!” Removing one hand from her ears, she picked up her axe and banged it up against the light wall but to no avail. Bang! Bang! Bang! Toothless hopped in front of Hiccup and shot a Plasma Blast at Naga. He saw it out the corner of his eye and held his wing up to the attack. Instead of damaging him, the wing sucked in the Plasma Blast, and his body flickered fire orange as he swallowed the attack whole.  
Hand still on arm, Hiccup jumped to his feet and leaped on Toothless’s back, “We have to find another way to attack him, bud!” He stuck his feet in his stirrups and gave his dragon a kick. The Night Fury shot into the sky and shot another Plasma Blast, except this time he aimed it at Naga’s head. For this attempt, the dragon’s eye sucked in the attack, and his body once again flickered. From Toothless’s back, Hiccup shouted, “This thing is unbeatable!” but then something popped in his head, “Wait a minute. I have an idea. Go, Toothless!” He gave Toothless another kick and steered him towards the Chamber’s entrance. Naga followed. He bounced off the bubble containing the remaining Riders, and it rolled in the other direction. Hookfang, Meatlug, Stormfly, Barf and Belch hurried after it.

  
In the meantime, Naga chased after Hiccup and Toothless.  
Hiccup peered back to him and yelled, “Faster, Toothless! We’re going to make it!”

  
Unfortunately, he spoke too soon. Naga brought back the claws of one of his wings and sliced at the two. Rip!  
The claws ripped Toothless’s prosthetic tailfin! “No!” Hiccup shouted when he saw it, “Not good! Not good at all!” He tightened his grip on Toothless’s saddle collar but yelled when another wave of excruciating pain overtook the arm that Naga burned. With it in that condition, he had trouble preparing for an emergency landing. Toothless roared with panic. He flapped his wings as hard as he could, but without his tailfin and Hiccup’s arm support, he could not stay aloft. CRASH! The dragon and his Rider crashed to the ground. Dust spewed up from where they landed. Naga roared, and a light appeared in his mouth. He used the light energy in his body to build up the attack. At times, Naga underestimated his power. Hiccup, cringing with pain on the ground, struggled to his feet and limped over to Toothless. Patting his head, he asked, “You all there, bud?” Toothless shook out his head but nodded to say that he was. Growling nervously, he sniffed his Rider’s left arm and gently nudged it. “I’m okay, bud.” Hiccup told him, but he clutched his arm, “It’s just a scratch.” Well, that scratch was about to get a whole lot worse. Naga.

  
In the light bubble, Astrid slapped her palms up against it and yelled,  
“Hiccup! Toothless! Look out! Behind you!” Too late. Naga let his attack go. He launched this Strike attack in the Chamber of Mystery during Hiccup’s mirage. It was known as the Devastating Blast, and it wasn’t even his most powerful attack. Naga’s most powerful attack was, brace yourself, 10,000 Suns. While the Devastating Blast crashed a few feet away from Hiccup and Toothless, it was still powerful enough to throw both of them back. KABOOM! A small portion of the attack collided with Hiccup’s already injured arm, and he yelled as the burn sucked it in, much like how Naga sucked in Toothless’s Plasma Blasts. He and Toothless catapulted out of the Crystal Chamber and ended up back in the main section of the Chamber of Mystery where Gobber and Stoick told the teens the story of the Light Dragon. Toothless wrapped his wings around Hiccup’s body to protect him, and together, the two friends splashed into the pool where they found the single crystal from before. Splash!

  
In the Crystal Chamber, Naga hurried after his victims but finally let the other Riders go. The bubble popped, and they fell on top of one another. Unfortunately, they were in a pretzel, and they struggled to untangle one another. The dragons had to jump in and help.

Back in the Chamber of Mystery’s main section, Naga hid in the wall as a 2D figure – his Mystery Dragon Class was showing. As quiet as a little mouse scurrying across a castle floor, he watched his targets. Hiccup lugged himself out of the pool, out of breath and using only his right hand, and Toothless followed close on his heel. The young man coughed water out of his lungs but only managed to crawl a few feet away from the pool before collapsing onto his front. Poor Hiccup. He has had a very bad day, and it was only going to get worse from here. Toothless, after shaking like a dog, whined and approached him. He nudged his friend’s head and urged him to his feet. Hiccup, though, did not get up. He was too exhausted. The first battle between the “Erlkönig” and Riders ended in disaster. They had to change their tactics if they had any hope to win against him. From where he rested, Hiccup slowly lifted his right hand and scratched Toothless under the chin. The dragon purred and plopped down next to his Rider. He wrapped his wing around him like a blanket and pulled him close to his warm body. Out of all the things someone had to avoid with the Light Dragon, a Light Dragon-infused injury was one of them. Any injury caused by Naga was fatal, considering his power came from sunlight, unless someone pieced together the Crystal Crown in time. Now, not only was Berk in danger and the world threatened by eternal darkness, Hiccup’s life was in grave danger. However, this is what Ryker wanted. Not Dagur and not even Naga, but Ryker. For the first time ever, it looked like the villains were winning.

  
Eventually, the other Riders and their dragons found Hiccup and Toothless, and they wasted no time to ask them if they were in one piece.  
Hiccup hid his excruciating pain behind a feeble smile and said, “We’re okay, but woo-wee, that Light Dragon. He’s a tougher cookie than we thought.” Astrid didn’t fall for his pretty boy act.  
She was furious at him, “Hiccup, I clearly told you not to follow that voice, and look what you did! You followed it!”  
“She said she would help us, though!” Hiccup argued, “How was I supposed to know she was the Light Dragon in disguise?”  
“You led us right into a trap!” Astrid shouted back, “You could have gotten us all killed!”  
“Oh wow!” Snotlout cracked a smile, “Yes! I’m not the only one who thought this was a bad idea! For the first time ever, Astrid is on my side!”  
Tuffnut clenched his fist and held it up to his heart, “As a ruler of Thorstonton II, I hereby banish Hiccup to the dungeon!”  
“Dungeon? What dungeon?” Hiccup sarcastically laughed, “I hope you’re joking, Tuff!”  
“That was only an inkling of the Light Dragon’s Power.” Fishlegs thought aloud.  
“An inkling?” asked Ruffnut, “Ho! Ho! Sick! There’s more?”  
“Um and why are you excited?” Snotlout wanted to know.  
“Because that thing is crazy! I love crazy!” Ruffnut clenched her fists and jumped up and down with excitement.  
“Guys!” Astrid shouted, “I thought we were supposed to be yelling at Hiccup!”  
“Look, I’m sorry.” Hiccup rose to his feet and slapped his right hand to his side. He faced his angry friends and admitted, “I don’t know what came over me. You’re right, Astrid. I should have listened to you. This is my fault, and I’m sorry.” As he made his confession, Naga watched him from within the wall. It looked like he was thinking.

  
He recognized the look in Stoick the Vast son’s eyes. Guilt. The guilt was killing him. He feared for the relationship between him and his friends and the future of his village. Inhaling slowly, the dragon made up his mind. He swam over to the wall behind the pillar where Hiccup saw the glow from before, and his 2D form leaped onto it. Once on the pillar, Naga crawled like a spider over to the platform the young man failed to climb earlier.

  
Just looking at him, Astrid felt the guilt Hiccup was feeling, and she approached.  
Placing her hand on his shoulder, she smiled feebly and said, “Hiccup, listen to me. The Dragon Riders don’t run on perfection. We run on friendship and teamwork. If something is bothering you, don’t hesitate to tell us.”  
“Except if it involves a thirty-foot tall, bipedal Light Dragon!” Snotlout yelped. He hid behind his hands and shook his head, “Oh, Hiccup. Why?”

  
Astrid rolled her eyes, but then she saw that a few tears flickered in Hiccup’s own eyes. Reaching for them, he tried not to sob, but the guilt he felt was insane. His arm also hurt like crazy, but he refused to tell his friends about it. He has already put them in enough danger.  
Astrid edged closer to him and wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “We’re here for you, Hiccup,” she told him, “Don’t ever forget that.” With that, she gave his cheek a small kiss.

  
Off to the side, Fishlegs said,  
“Um, guys. What’s that?” He pointed at the ceiling of the chamber where a small light gently floated down from the atmosphere above. His friends looked with him, as well as the dragons, and their eyes widened. As the light continued to descend, it spun in a gentle circle and headed towards Hiccup. The young man painfully lifted both hands and reached for the light. When it touched his fingertips, it exploded in his face! Flash! The friends had to close their eyes against it. Finally, when the light faded, resting in Hiccup’s palms was another single light crystal! He gasped at the sight of it, as well as his friends.  
The young man managed to crack a weak smile, and he softly spoke, “A crystal. It’s the crystal that we came here to look for in the first place.”  
“Who gave it to you, though?” Astrid wanted to know as Toothless curiously sniffed the beautiful gemstone.  
“I don’t know.” Hiccup admitted. And he didn’t. He really had no idea.

  
From where he rested on the pillar, Naga admired the friends as they each took turns passing the crystal back and forth. He nodded to himself and hopped back over to the chamber’s main wall. The dragon headed in the direction of the ceiling and left the Riders and dragons alone, unaware that he, the “Erlkönig,” had mortally wounded one of them.


	13. Robbed of Sunlight

The Riders and dragons returned to Berk around 4:00am exhausted. This was partly because they had to find another way out of the Chamber that did not require flying because of Toothless’s ripped tailfin. When finally they reached the village, the Riders broke off from one another and went directly home. While they had a lot of planning to do, they were too tired to do anything else – Hiccup and Toothless especially. They almost dragged themselves back to Hiccup’s hut. Once inside, Hiccup pulled off his satchel containing the crystals and Dragon Eye and tossed it on the ground. He was too tired to fix Toothless’s tail. He would do that later. On his way to his bed, though, something happened. A golden light flickered throughout his body – flicker, flicker, and he fell to his knees, suddenly too weak to stand. Seeing this, Toothless snapped up his head and hurried to him. He nudged him with his nose and growled worryingly. The flickering was not the only thing that alarmed him, though. Hiccup also seemed out of breath, and his skin looked paler than usual. The dragon’s eyes rolled back down to his left arm, and his pupils widened. He looked adorable.

Hiccup glanced at him and said, “Don’t worry about me, Toothless. I promise it’s just a scratch.” Toothless let out a sarcastic laugh. That arm injury was not just a scratch. There was something else going on, something terrifying. Hiccup tried to stand up, but halfway to his feet, his body once again flickered. This was a form of Naga’s physical torture, aside from psychological torture. Toothless caught Hiccup on his nose before he could hit the ground and let out another worried growl. “I’m just tired.” Hiccup told him. Toothless hoped so, but he wasn’t sure. Hiccup’s skin was getting paler by the second as Naga sucked the warmth and light out of his body. The Night Fury helped his friend over to his bed and plopped him down on it. “Thanks bud.” Hiccup spoke, “I’ll be okay. I just need to sleep the day off.” He gave his dragon a pat and pulled off his sore, metal leg. Yawning, he grabbed his bed covers with his right hand and plopped down on his pillow. As soon as his head hit it, he fell fast asleep. That is how tired he was. Seeing him asleep made Toothless realize just how tired he was too. Yawning, he made his way over to his stone mat, scorched it, and lied down. As the concerned dragon fell asleep, his eyes did not leave Hiccup. For the second round of the night, Hiccup slept better than Toothless.

Only three hours later, Stoick the Vast broke down the door to his son’s hut and shouted,

“Son! Get up!” Uh oh. What happened? At the sound of his voice, Toothless snapped awake and took his head off his paws. His ears stood straight up. Hiccup groaned from his bed. Only three hours of sleep. After everything that has happened to him, that was nowhere near enough. Stoick stormed to his bed and continued to shout, “I’m not going to ask you again!”

“Dad, please.” Hiccup begged from under his covers, “Five more minutes.”

“No! Five minutes won’t cut it, son! As heir of Berk, this is important!” Stoick peered over his shoulder to the bewildered Toothless and told him, “Get him up for me, Toothless.” As he marched out of the hut, Toothless heard him mumbling, “I’ve had it with teenagers,” to himself. Stoick almost never said something like that unless he was stressed out.

Toothless stood up on his mat, and his eyes landed on Hiccup’s bed. The young man slowly sat up, but he kept his blanket over his shoulder. Gulping nervously, Toothless came within reach of him. At the sight of his friend, the worry inside him changed to fear. In the three hours Hiccup slept, he changed drastically. Not really personality wise but appearance wise. His skin was now almost as white as snow, and an infection was appearing on the arm that the Light Dragon injured. Toothless saw it through the tear in his dragon scale armor. Hiccup also looked a lot more tired than usual, and he shivered as Naga continued to steal the warmth away from his body. He felt horrible. Why did Stoick have to call him outside? What was so important that he had to interrupt his beauty sleep? Hiccup thought that the sick had to stay in bed or visit the barber surgeon. However, not many people of the Middle Ages liked visiting the barber surgeon, and he was one of those people. It was strange, you know. When the surgeon bled their client and tried to pull the sickness out, for some reason the client got weaker, and Hiccup wondered why. Keep in mind he was a medieval boy living in Medieval Norway, so he did not have a vast understanding of medical technologies, as any human of the time should. No wonder the plague that struck fourteenth century Europe was so deadly. Whatever the case, Hiccup rolled out of bed, and after reattaching his prosthetic leg, he and Toothless headed over to the hut’s door that Stoick broke down. On their way out, they noticed a group of people and dragons were standing in front of it. Villagers. Something must be going on or else they wouldn’t be standing around the chief’s side of the island. Seeing them, Hiccup gulped. His eyes rolled down to his pale hands, and he examined them. He almost was too scared to step out. Surely, his dad would notice his sickly form, but how would Daddy react when he learned the Light Dragon injured him, the prince of Berk? Hiccup knew his dad well enough to know he most likely would go insane. Toothless felt his nervousness. With hope that Hiccup’s condition would improve later that day, he held his wing up to him that covered everything except his shoulders and head. Once ready, the two stepped outside.

Astrid, Ruff, Tuff, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and their dragons were part of the group of villagers standing in front of the chief and chief son’s huts. They stood on either side of Stoick, and all of them stared at the sky.

Toothless headed over to them, and Hiccup asked, “Hey. What’s going on?”

“We’re losing,” was all Astrid said.

Stoick clenched his fists, “The Light Dragon is winning.”

“What do you mean?” Then Hiccup saw it. The Sun.

What happened to the Sun? No longer did it glow as bright as it usually did. It also looked smaller, as if a whirlpool was sucking it down to the bottom of the ocean. All around Berk and its surrounding islands, the world was darker, colder, and this concerned people.

Children hid behind the wings of a few dragons while one voice popped out of the crowd, “Chief! What’s happened to the Circle of Light?”

“Is it sick?” another voice asked, “Will it get better?”

Just staring at the dimmed, shrinking Sun, a slight pain hit Hiccup’s head as the Light Dragon tried to communicate with him, _“Hiccup. Hiccup,”_ but the panicked voices of the villagers yelling at him and Stoick snapped him out of his trance:

“What should we do?”

“Do we need to abandon Berk?”

“Our dragons will freeze!”

“Not only the dragons but us too!”

“This is the end of the world!”

“QUIET!” Stoick shouted at his people. Immediately, everybody shut up, and their eyes landed on their chief. “Now that we’re all loosey goosey with fear that our world is ending,” Stoick announced, “I think that it is best if you ask my son about what’s happening.”

“Huh?” Hiccup asked. Why did his father put him on the spot?

Stoick stepped off to the side and exposed him and Toothless to the frightened villagers and dragons. “Go on, son,” he sternly spoke, “Tell them. You obviously know more than we do.” Now all eyes were on Hiccup. His knees knocked together, and he could hear his teeth chattering – not only from nervousness but also cold.

He hid his pale body even more behind Toothless’s wing until only his head showed. “Uh, uh,” he stuttered. His friends also expected him to tell the villagers and Stoick what happened between him and the Light Dragon overnight.

Many faces glared at him, and angry voices asked:

“What did you do this time?”

“Why is it that every time a calamity comes, you’re involved?”

“Why is that Night Fury still friends with you?”

“Are you the one behind the Circle of Light’s illness?”

Just hearing everybody call him out, Hiccup’s stress went up a whole other level. For the love of Thor, he was injured! He didn’t have time for all this rubbish!

He had other pressing priorities, and he ended up sharing them and mouthing off at the villagers, “Enough! Fine! I’ll tell you! The Light Dragon! The Light Dragon’s risen from the dead!”

“Light Dragon?” voices mumbled in the crowd, and a few dragons growled with concern.

“Oh, please! Don’t act like you don’t know what it is!” snapped Stoick’s son, “Don’t throw your anger out on me! I am not the chief, yet everyone is gaining up on me as if I know how to fight this threat! Well, let me tell you something! I don’t! Toothless and I failed to defeat the Light Dragon last night!” Oops. He spoke too much.

Stoick’s eyes landed on his son, and he asked, “Last night?”

Hiccup ignored him, “I’m tired of you all treating me like I’m the only Dragon Tamer here! There are other tamers! Others who are better than me! I am not the chief! My father is, and I’m not like him!” With that, Hiccup stomped his foot and grabbed hold of his injured arm. With Toothless by his side, he stormed into his hut, slammed the door shut, and put a Do Not Disturb sign on it. The group of villagers, dragons, Stoick, and Hiccup’s friends stared at the hut in complete utter silence. Astrid felt somebody tap her shoulder, and she turned to see whom it was.

Stoick. “Come with me, lass,” he gently spoke, “I need to talk to you.”

In his hut, Hiccup was resting on his bed with the top half of his back hanging off the edge of it. With eyes closed and knees bent, the first cluster of crystals he found the day before in the tunnel was resting on his chest. Toothless stood next to him, and he nudged his friend with his ripped tailfin half.

Feeling it, Hiccup opened his eyes and said, “Sorry, bud. I meant to fix your tail earlier. I am just not myself. There is too much going on right now.” Pushing up on his backside, he set the crystals down on his lap and patted Toothless’s head, “Why is everybody pushing me to become chief? I’m not ready. Believe me, bud, I just want everything to go back to normal. It’s hard to believe that just yesterday morning, none of this was happening. Everything changed when Astrid and I had the same dream.”

Dreaded thoughts haunted Hiccup as he took Toothless’s tailfin and fixed it. There was another desk in his hut that he dedicated to just his craftsmanship.

Polishing Toothless’s prosthetic tail, he reattached it to the missing half and asked, “How does that feel, bud?” Toothless flapped the tailfin to test it and nodded to say it was fine. With his hand on his left arm, Hiccup nodded, “Good boy,” and headed back into his room. Toothless, knowing what he was about to do, carried a bucket of water with a rag in it after him. Hiccup wanted to look at his injured arm. He felt like the pain grew a lot worse during the thirty minutes he fixed Toothless’s tail, and he felt no better than he had earlier. In fact, he felt worse. His skin continued to whiten. Before long, it would be the color of freshly fallen snow. Toothless sat like a dog next to his friend with his ears standing straight up. Hiccup pulled off his dragon scale armor, revealing his red tunic under it, and he pulled the left sleeve up to his shoulder. At the sight of the infection, this was all he could say, “Oh no.” He knew the injury was serious, but he had no idea it was this serious. Almost the entire upper, left arm was slightly swollen, bloodied, and mixed in with the red infection was light yellow, proving it was a Light Dragon-infused injury. Just seeing it, the young man felt nauseous, but he went ahead and cleaned the wound with the rag in the water-filled bucket. He flinched the whole time he worked. Toothless spat a Plasma Blast into the fireplace – he noticed Hiccup was shivering – and again sat like a dog. He curiously watched as his friend cleaned the wound and banded it. Once finished, he pulled his dragon scale armor back over his head. Lucky for him, his brown shoulder pads covered most of his upper arms so the injury was hidden, which is what he wanted.

There was a knock at the hut’s front door, and Astrid’s voice rang out from the other side of it,

“Hiccup? Come on, I know you’re in there.”

“Astrid?” Hiccup asked in a slight panicked voice.

“Yes, it’s Astrid. I need to talk to you.”

“Could you come back another time?”

“No. It needs to be now.”

Hiccup inhaled a breath of air, “Okay. I’m coming.” He rose up off his bed on shaking legs but only took two steps before he collapsed onto Toothless’s head. Walking suddenly took a whole lot more energy. Frightened, Hiccup asked his dragon, “What’s happening to me?”

Before Toothless could answer, Astrid again banged the front door, “Hiccup!”

“I’m coming!” Hiccup called back, and he pushed himself off Toothless’s head. Coming within reach of the door, he reached for the handle. When his fingers were only an inch or two away from it, suddenly, Astrid kicked the door down, and it pushed Hiccup up against the wall behind it! “I beg your pardon,” he said as his world started to spin, and he fell onto his back.

Astrid marched around the hut and yelled, “Where are you?”

“Down here.” Hiccup mumbled from where he laid. He pushed himself to a sitting position and watched as Astrid approached him.

She placed her hands on her hips and sternly said, “I need to talk to you. What is going on?”

“You just shoved me into the wall!” From where he stood, Toothless laughed deep in his throat at Hiccup’s response. Astrid grabbed her friend’s good arm and pulled him to his feet.

She pointed at his desk, “Sit down at your desk and tell me what you’re not telling me!”

“As if! You're not the boss of me!” This time, Toothless rolled his eyes and covered his ears with his paws. Teenagers. They always found a time to argue with one another…cough, cough – puberty. Even though he refused, the look on Astrid’s face scared Hiccup, and he quickly sat down. Who knew a woman could be that frightening? Well, Astrid was that kind of person. She was a tough cookie.

She paced back and forth in front of him and explained, “Whatever. You’re father wants us to fly out and take a look at the Sun. Considering we are the two heroes, he thinks we have the strongest connection with Naga.”

“He wants us to fly to the Sun? I don’t think that’s possible.”

“Well, it’s worth a shot. If we’re going to bargain with Naga, then that’s probably where we’ll find him.”

“You’re crazy.” That line really offended Astrid.

Nobody, not even her best friend, tells her she’s crazy, and she threatened him, “Say that again, Hiccup, and I won’t be so nice. You are obviously hiding something not only us but also your father. Look at yourself. Why are you so pale?”

“Lack of sunlight leads to paler skin,” was Hiccup’s answer.

Astrid shook her head as his words sunk in, “Which is why we need to fly out and confront Naga. Come on. We’ve wasted enough time already.” If not obvious, she was still angry at Hiccup for what happened overnight. The young woman marched over to Toothless, faced Hiccup, and crossed her arms.

The two friends, after a little more arguing, climbed aboard the dragon and took off on their quest. Hiccup obviously steered Toothless, and Astrid sat behind him. She wrapped her arms around him and peered down to the endless ocean, rocks, and islands surrounding Berk. Due to Hiccup’s arm injury, he did not put as much effort into his steering as he usually did. As a result, Toothless moved slower and wobbled a bit since his prosthetic tailfin did not have as much leg and arm support. Remember, it was Hiccup’s dominant arm that Naga injured, his left arm. Coincidence or not, but Toothless’s prosthetic tailfin was his left fin. The left side of Hiccup’s body controlled the left side of the dragon, including the tailfin, while his right side controlled Toothless’s right side.

Even Astrid noticed the dragon’s wobbly flight, and she asked her friend, “Why is Toothless wobbling so much?”

“I just fixed his tailfin, and he’s trying it out.” That wasn’t even close to what was happening, but Toothless couldn’t exactly correct his friend. After all, he communicated through dragon language, not human.

“What are you doing?” Astrid asked Hiccup only ten minutes later, “I thought we were flying to the Sun.”

Hiccup peered back to her and admitted, “Astrid, I really don’t think we’re going to be able to reach it. Toothless and I can only fly so high up.”

“Then how are we supposed to bargain? That’s our quest…what Stoick expects from us.”

“Look, Astrid. Naga is a very complicated dragon. I do not know if he is either a friend or a foe, and neither does Toothless. Who knows, a bargain between us may not even be necessary.”

Astrid laughed sarcastically, “Look who’s talking crazy now. You’re hilarious, Hiccup. Here we are, sitting on top of a majestic Night Fury, and you’re saying that Naga is not an enemy when he is obviously stealing the Sun.”

“But what if he was the one who gave us that crystal in the Chamber of Mystery last night?”

“Oh, shut up. You’re only making this worse.” Here we go again. As mentioned before, teenagers always found a way to argue with one another. For the second time, Toothless rolled his eyes, but then he sensed something, and his ears stood straight up.

The dragon came to a screeching halt in the sky and threw Astrid into Hiccup’s back. “Wha-What is it, bud?” Hiccup nervously asked him.

Astrid wrapped her arms around his body again and searched the darkened area, “He senses something.”

“I know he does,” said Hiccup, “but what is it?” A low growl came from the rough ocean below. Waves crashed amongst rocks and sprayed the teens and dragon with seawater. Toothless snapped his head in the direction of the growl. Glaring, he showed his teeth and growled back. His ears moved back and forth, and he listened out for whatever was stalking him and his friends. Hiccup and Astrid looked down at the ocean with him, and Hiccup whispered, “Stay quiet.” His heart raced as the ocean suddenly turned a lot rougher. Two eyes appeared in the water – heterochromatic eyes.

Astrid tightened her grip on her friend and frightfully asked, “What is that?” As the eyes moved closer, they grew larger, but then they disappeared. Now the teens and dragon were once again looking at a so-called empty ocean.

Hiccup patted Toothless’s neck and told him, “Toothless, prepare a Plasma Blast.” Toothless nodded and opened his mouth. The familiar blue light appeared in it, but he held it in place as he waited for something to shoot at. There was an eerie, dead silence. Hiccup and Astrid tried not to breathe.

Astrid tapped Hiccup’s shoulder and whispered in his ear, “Naga is stalking us.”

“I know he is.” Hiccup whispered back, “But where is he? Toothless, can you hear anything?” Toothless shook his head no. Like any Mystery Class dragon, Naga was very stealthy and sneaky and like any Tidal Class dragon, he lived in or near water. Toothless had no idea where to aim his Plasma Blast. Then, it happened. Things went from zero to one hundred very fast.

Splash! The Light Dragon’s thirty-foot tall body exploded out of the ocean, and he ripped Hiccup and Astrid straight off Toothless’s back! The Night Fury cried out in panic. He flapped his wings as hard as he could but could not save himself from falling towards the ocean! No Hiccup meant no flying. Toothless could not fly on his own.

Hiccup, who held onto one of Naga’s horns, called, “Toothless!” Astrid slid down the dragon’s back but grabbed a sharp crystal at the end of his tail to break her fall. Hiccup banged Naga’s horn and cried, “Drop me! He can’t fly on his own!” Naga refused. He twisted his neck and glanced back to Astrid. Growling, the dragon snapped his tail forward and flicked her right off him! It was as if she was a fly or something! Astrid screamed as she too fell towards the ocean. Hiccup held his hand out to her, “Astrid!” Both Toothless and Astrid splashed into the rough ocean below. Splash! “No!” Hiccup shouted. Toothless hurried to surface and tried to lift himself out of the ocean, but he failed. With every attempt, he fell right back into the water. It wasn’t long until Astrid emerged at surface, and seeing the distressed dragon, she swam towards him. “Drop me!” Hiccup begged Naga, “Please!” Naga shook his head no, and this gave Hiccup no other choice. He pushed himself up on his back, ran down his spine, and jumped off his tail.

The young man screamed as he too started to plummet. “Hiccup!” Astrid shouted from down below. Naga roared and flew after the young man. He almost caught him, but then Toothless launched his Plasma Blast attack. He aimed it right at Naga. At the sight of it, the frightened dragon’s first instinct was to hold up his wing like a shield. Smash! The Plasma Blast hit him smack dab in the center of his upper left wing and knocked him back. Hiccup splashed into the ocean, but he started to sink below the surface. He did not have the leg support to stay afloat. Toothless dove underwater after him as Naga tried to recover from the Plasma Blast. Underwater, at the sight of his dragon friend, Hiccup grabbed him by the saddle collar, ignoring the excruciating pain in his arm. As soon as he had a firm grip on it, he put his feet back in the stirrups. He and Toothless rocketed out of the ocean, picking up Astrid in the process, and headed towards Naga. The teens and dragon watched in terror when they saw how angry he was. Toothless’s attack succeeded with cracking the Light Dragon’s wing. The cracks appeared in the prisms on it, and he lost light energy from them. Now his upper left wing was dimmer than his other wings. Furious, Naga faced the teens and dragon and roared an even more terrifying metal-screeching roar at them. SCREEEEEEEEECH! He dodged Toothless’s next Plasma Blast and soared up towards the dimmed Sun.

Toothless, Hiccup, and Astrid chased after him, and Hiccup yelled, “Go, Toothless! We can’t let him steal the sunlight!” At the sight of them, Naga came to a screeching halt and again roared. Astrid and Hiccup slapped their hands up against their ears and backed away from him.

The Light Dragon wrapped his wings around his body and crouched over. Only a short time later, Hiccup, Astrid, and Toothless witnessed something they never hoped would happen! Naga stole the Sun right in front of them! Light rays escaped it and made their way down to the dragon.

Just like overnight, Hiccup’s body also flickered, and he yelled as he fell forward. “Hiccup!” Astrid shouted, and she grabbed his shoulder. As Naga fed off the sunlight, not only did it grow darker and colder, he too started to grow. Light energy found their way into the cracks on his wing and healed it. Terrified, Hiccup, Astrid, and Toothless’s eyes did not leave the angry, growing dragon. Only a short time later, no longer was he thirty feet tall. Instead, he was a hundred feet tall! The sunlight danced around his crystalline body, and numerous rainbows flickered in it.

Hiccup and Astrid broke down in sweat, and Astrid frightfully asked her friend, “Are we dead now?”

“Yes.” Hiccup squealed. He kicked Toothless’s sides, yelling, “Retreat! Retreat!” repeatedly. The message was clear after the first “Retreat!” Toothless flapped his wings and took off as fast as he could away from the angry Light Dragon. He soared close to the ocean and headed back towards Berk, which was only a dot on the horizon. The now one-hundred-foot-tall dragon played Follow the Leader with them. “Go! Go! Go!” Hiccup shouted when he saw he was preparing his attack that injured him overnight. Naga aimed the Devastating Blast at the ocean and let it go. BOOM! A huge wave of water crashed into Toothless back and pushed him and his friends towards Berk.

They yelled and grabbed each other as they held on for dear life. “I’m sorry!” Astrid cried as tears streamed down her cheeks. She set her head down on Hiccup’s back and sobbed like a little child, “Just get us away from this thing!” With one last Devastating Blast, Naga once again ripped the friends off Toothless’s back. Both amputees lost their prosthetic body parts in the process – Hiccup his leg and Toothless his tail and all three friends washed up on Berk’s beach. Naga dove back into the ocean, creating an enormous splash when he did. SPLASH! SPLASH! The leftover water ripped the three friends right off the beach and chucked them back into Berk’s village! Toothless wrapped his wings around the two teens, and all together, they crashed right at the feet of Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff, Fishlegs, and their dragons.


	14. Optional Read: Info about Naga

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note: Like what I did for my Star Wars fanfic, I am posting an optional read for anyone who is curious about Naga and want to learn a little more about him. I am doing this because I know he is a very complex character, and it may also be a while before I post the next chapter. If you're curious, go ahead and read the optional section, for I think it will answer some questions you may have about my fanfic.

Naga (The Light Dragon)

Home Island: Telemik

Species – Unknown

Dragon Class – All; has a little bit of everything (Stoker, Tracker, Sharp, Tidal, Strike, Mystery, Boulder)

Other Names: "The Light Dragon," "The Prism of All Dragons," "Sun Murderer," and "Erlkönig" Dragon Version

Powers: Known for psychological torture. Also included: physical torture, 10,000 Suns (most powerful attack – a Strike attack); when Naga feels threatened, he sucks away sunlight to give him strength

Roar: Metal-screeching (sounds like nails on chalkboard or metal scraping together)

Source of Power: Sunlight

Appearance: Bipedal (stands on two legs), made entirely of crystals and prisms, has two sets of wings, heterochromatic, prism-like eyes, primarily light yellow and yellow, constant rainbows shimmering in his body

Height: Naga stands at primarily thirty feet tall, but he has the power to change that and grow to at least one-hundred feet tall. Usually the only time he does this is when he is about to launch his 10,000 Suns attack or he feels deeply threatened.

Inspiration for Naga: Schubert's "Erlkönig"


	15. Chapter 14 Affliction

Naga waited underwater for his target. By the look in his face, it was easy to tell he was both angry and frustrated. All he wanted was to get Hiccup alone, and every time he tried, his friends had to “rescue” him. Due to the lack of sunlight, the ocean was dark. Only the outline of Naga’s body and his eyes lit it up. Mouth slightly open, he growled to himself. His tail waved back and forth with the movement of the current. Frightened fish took off and left the angry dragon alone. No longer was he a hundred feet tall; he was back to his normal height, thirty feet tall. A bubble, much like the one that surrounded him earlier, swallowed him, and he closed his eyes. To make himself seem smaller, he once again crouched down and wrapped his crystalline wings around him. One of these days, he would get Hiccup alone, and once he did, he finally would have some good news to return to the Dragon Hunters.

Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff, Fishlegs, and their dragons stared at the soaking wet Toothless in front of them, and their jaws dropped to the ground. Coughing came from under the dragon’s wing, and Astrid lugged herself out from it. She crawled on hands and knees towards her friends and coughed seawater out of her lungs. They continued to stare.  
Then Snotlout yelled, “Babe!” He hurried to Astrid, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to her feet, “What did that ‘beast’ do to you?” He was not referring to Naga. He was referring to Hiccup. Astrid had a headache. She reached for her temple and shook like a dog.  
From where they stood, the twins chuckled, and Ruffnut admitted, “Tuff and I made a wish when we saw you flying through the sky.”  
“Sure did.” Tuffnut laughed, “There I was, staring out at the ocean, and what should come flying towards us? Nothing but a shooting star that resembles a Night Fury. So I put my arm around Ruff, and in my mature voice, I told her, ‘Make a wish, hon.’”  
Still shaken up, Astrid wrapped her arms around her body and frightfully admitted, “The Light Dragon overpowered us.”  
“Woof, he sure did.” Fishlegs said as he examined her up and down.  
“Hiccup and I…” Astrid sobbed, “We didn’t expect Naga to…he grew! Hiccup…where’s Hiccup?” Toothless searched around in his wings, but he immediately freaked out when he saw Hiccup wasn’t in them! What the? He thought he caught him! The dragon twirled in a circle and searched every inch of his body.

However, he inhaled a breath of relief when he heard a familiar voice shouting at him and his friends from the cliff the Light Dragon threw them over,  
“Help!” Hiccup! At the sound of his voice, Toothless, Ruff, Tuff, Astrid, Fishlegs, and the remaining dragons hurried to the cliff and peered over it. There was Hiccup, holding on for dear life halfway down the cliff.  
He was missing his prosthetic leg, and the rocks were slowly cracking under his hand. “Hiccup!” Astrid yelled, and she held her hand out to him. Ruffnut chuckled and placed her hands on her knees, “Are you having fun down there?”  
“You know there’s a path you don’t have to climb.” Tuffnut spoke right after her.  
Hiccup peered up to them and laughed nervously, “Now thinking about it, I’d much rather prefer to climb!” but he closed his eyes and clenched his teeth when his hand started to slip, “I thought our legs have a couple other jobs besides walking!” Right as he said that, the rocks broke, crack, and he fell back towards the ocean!

Astrid prepared an order for Stormfly to fly down after him, but before she could call it, splash! Once again, Naga shot out of the ocean, and he caught Hiccup on his head! Him! Naga! He saved him!  
Down below, Astrid yelled, “No!” and she ran after him, “Hiccup! You monster! Bring him back!” Screaming, Hiccup grabbed hold of one of Naga's crystals as he soared higher and higher into the atmosphere. Before long, Berk’s buildings were nothing but tiny dots below. Naga soared in an arc in front of the dimmed Sun, and Hiccup dangled under him. Once right side up again, the dragon dove down to the ocean and skimmed the water with the tips of his wings. Hiccup gripped his crystal so tightly, his fist turned white. All he could do was stare. Why wasn’t Naga trying to kill him? After all, that’s what he did best. Continuing to skim the water, he twisted his neck and smiled at the bewildered Hiccup! He smiled at him! What the? Who was Naga? Was he a friend, or was he a foe? Hiccup did not know how to explain him anymore. The Light Dragon twirled in a circle and headed back to Berk.

Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the dragons stood side by side and watched the phenomenon. Naga’s body dimmed as he approached them so he wouldn’t sear the friends’ eyes. Soaring over the cliff, a gust of wind given off by his wings blew them back. He dropped Hiccup down to his claws and then tossed him to the ground. Afterwards, the dragon headed back to the cliff and hovered over it. Stormfly, Toothless, and Astrid leaped to their feet and hurried to Hiccup.  
Astrid grabbed his right arm and helped him to his feet, asking, “Are you okay?”  
“I think so.” Hiccup admitted, although that insane, confusing ride on the Light Dragon left him a little bit woozy. All this was happening just so quickly. Astrid pressed her palm up against his chest to keep him steady as he wobbled a bit on his one leg. Together, he and she glared at the Light Dragon, still not knowing if they could trust him. On the other hand, Toothless and Stormfly growled to intimidate him. Ruffnut, after rising to her feet, cracked a smile and hurried to the edge of the cliff.  
She held her arms out to her sides, in front of Naga, and yelled, “Whoa! I can get a tan by merely standing in front of this dragon! That’s it! Keep the light coming, baby!” However, as soon as she said that, the Light Dragon dove back into the ocean and sprayed her with a wave of water. Tuffnut burst out laughing, and he slapped his hands to his thighs as he tried to control it.

Snotlout, also standing up, brushed himself down and said, “Well, I’m out. I’ve got some preparations to make.”  
“Preparations?” Hiccup asked from where he and Astrid stood, “What do you mean ‘preparations,’ Snotlout?”  
“Oh, you know. Just Snotlout things.” That didn’t help, but Snotlout went no further. He snuck away from the group and disappeared in the heart of the village, leaving a bewildered Hiccup and Astrid behind.

Astrid, Toothless, Ruff, Tuff, Fishlegs, Barf and Belch, and Meatlug helped Hiccup back to his hut so he could replace his leg. He was running quite low on them. Now was a good time to call up Gobber, who served as the village blacksmith. By the time the friends made it to the hut, though, Hiccup was so dizzy he had to sit down. Naga tried to get into his head again, which this gave him a searing headache. What the heck? Only twenty minutes ago, he gave him an amazing, yet confusing ride on him, and now all of a sudden he was torturing him again? This was all so confusing. From where he sat, Hiccup clutched his head, lowered it, and tried to shake the pain away.

With crossed arms, Astrid worriedly paced back and forth in front of him while Fishlegs flipped through his book, trying to find a diagnosis to all this strange behavior.  
“Did you find something?” Astrid wanted to know, “What’s wrong with him?”  
“Nothing’s wrong with me, guys.” Hiccup weakly spoke from his bed, “I feel fine,” but when he tried pushing himself to his feet, his body once again flickered light yellow. Falling back onto his bedspread, the little light he had left in his body vanished, and his skin turned snow white.  
Astrid gasped and asked Fishlegs, “Did you see that? His body flickered like that during the battle with Naga too!”  
“I did.” Fishlegs said with a nod, “but I can’t find anything about what it may be.”  
“Perhaps our dear Hiccup is tired of being the leader of the Dragon Riders.” Tuffnut wildly guessed, “He can always put the chicken on the throne.”  
“Or Barf and Belch.” Ruffnut joked, “They can play Bat the Nut with each Rider every day.”  
“Don’t worry about me.” Hiccup said when he saw the worry in his friends’ faces, “Right now, we need to focus on pulling out the Dragon Eye and figuring out where we need to go next for another crystal.” Fishlegs sarcastically chuckled and shut his book.  
He nudged Astrid, saying, “We could always take him to the barber surgeon.”  
“What?!” Hiccup leaped almost ten feet in the air when he said that, “No way! I don’t want my hair cut!” That is what the medieval barber surgeon did. They cut their patient’s hair and performed surgery, hence the name “barber surgeon.”  
“It’s just a joke!” Fishlegs quickly spoke when he saw how frightened Hiccup was.  
“We’re not going to take you to the barber surgeon, Hiccup,” said Astrid, “but I do think we need to pay another visit to Gothi.”  
“Oh! Perfect!” Tuffnut laughed, “We can call her hut the Hiccup Care Center!”  
Ruffnut moved right along with his joke, “or the Chief’s Center, but FYI, you’ll probably find Hiccup Horrendous Haddock in it. We can hang a big sign over the door that says _Welcome, Hiccup, my usual client_.”  
“You guys are unbelievable,” said Hiccup, “When will you understand that I am perfectly fine? There is no need for a Hiccup Care Center.”  
“Aw, man.” Tuffnut groaned, “I thought it was a pretty good idea.”  
“Well then, you can put together my funeral.” Hiccup brought his hand to his injured arm and clutched it.

“Now come on, Hiccup.” Astrid said with a small smile, “You’re not dying. There’s not going to be a funeral.”  
“Aw.” Tuffnut groaned from off to the side.  
Astrid glared at him, “Is there something you’re trying to say? We’re supposed to be encouraging him!” Toothless came within reach of his frightened friend and set his head down on his lap. Hiccup scratched his head for comfort as Astrid met his eyes and said, “Fine. If it’s not Gothi, then we’re going to get your father.”  
“Huh?!” That was even worse than Gothi! When Daddy found out what the Light Dragon did to Hiccup, he would call a Viking raiding party to eliminate Naga. “Fine!” Hiccup yelled as he hugged Toothless’s head, “Gothi it is! Do not get Dad involved with this! Please!”  
“Why not?” Astrid crossed her arms, “What are you hiding that you don’t want your dad to know? I thought you could tell him anything.”

“Affliction,” was the only answer Hiccup gave her.  
“Affliction?” A question mark appeared above Astrid’s head, “What do you mean?”  
“My spirit is free. I shall sell it to the Light Dragon.”  
“What?” The fear in Astrid’s face was insane, “What are you talking about?”  
“I think he’s gone a little cuckoo.” Tuffnut observed, “Now we know somebody whom the chicken can make friends with.”  
“My spirit is free.” Hiccup repeated. Gently pushing Toothless off him, he rose to his feet and made his way towards his hut’s front door. Naga lured him towards it. He swam around in the young man’s brain and gestured for him to follow him. Hiccup did.

He headed outside and approached the cliff he fell off earlier. Waves crashed on the wall of it down below as the familiar heterochromatic eyes appeared in the water.  
Behind, Hiccup’s friends followed close on his tail, and Astrid asked, “What is going on with him?”  
“He’s like a zombie.” Ruffnut observed as a smile crept across her face, “I like it.” From where he stood, Hiccup held his good arm out to his side and faced the ocean.  
Slowly lifting it, he called to the Light Dragon, “Take me with you. My spirit is free.”  
“What do you think you’re doing?” Astrid frightfully asked, “Stop! Stop!” Growling, Toothless crouched down and opened his mouth as he prepared another Plasma Blast. First, it was a nervous breakdown, and now Hiccup was under a spell of some sort. He certainly had his hands full.

In the ocean under the cliff, the Erlkönig’s eyes glowed up, and he told the young man in a seducing voice,  
“If you come with me, Hiccup, I will share my island and riches with you. You will never have to worry about anything ever again. After all, you said you didn’t want to become chief, right?”  
“Hiccup, stop!” Astrid begged, “Please!” She hurried to her friend when she saw he lifted one of his feet over the cliff and grabbed his arms, “The Light Dragon is seducing you!”  
“Ow!” Hiccup yelled as she pulled him back. Closing his eyes, he fought to free himself from her powerful grasp, “My arm! My arm! You’re hurting it!” Astrid did have a tighter grip on his left arm than his right since it was his dominant arm and hand. Affliction. What Hiccup said was true. The arm injury was afflicting him, and he thought the Light Dragon had the power to heal it since he healed his own injury during the battle.  
“Let go!” the young man cried out, “He can heal me!”  
“Heal you?” Astrid questioned, “What do you mean ‘heal you?’”  
Tuffnut placed his hands on his hips and sarcastically spoke, “I’ll start making a list of who to invite to his funeral.”  
“Tuffnut, that’s not funny!” Astrid sternly shouted, “Something is seriously wrong with him! We need Gothi! Why don’t you and Ruff be useful for once and go get her?”  
“Fine,” the twins spoke at the same time, “If you say so.” They climbed aboard Barf and Belch, mumbling to themselves, and took off.

While Astrid was trying to pull Hiccup away from the cliff, Naga was using mental, psychic energy to pull him back towards it.  
A tug-of-war started between the human and dragon. “The Light Dragon is pulling him towards the ocean!” Astrid yelled with her eyes closed, “I need some help!”  
“Roger that, Astrid!” Fishlegs saluted and hurried to her. He wrapped his arms around Astrid’s body and started to pull. Meatlug, Toothless, and Stormfly also helped. Toothless grabbed the back of Fishlegs’s tunic, while Stormfly chomped down on his tail, and Meatlug grabbed her tail. All five friends tugged on Hiccup and pulled him back in the direction of Berk. However, the Light Dragon was not going to give up so easily. Underwater, his eyes flickered, and an excruciating pain exploded in Hiccup’s head as the psychological torture started again.  
SCREEEEEEECH!! “AHHH!” screamed the young man, “NOT AGAIN! IT’S HAPPENING!”

"Hiccup, fight it!" Astrid shouted when she noticed his distress, "Don't let Naga take you! Pull harder, guys!" Nodding, Fishlegs and the dragons narrowed their eyes and obeyed her.

As they did so, Hiccup clutched his head with both hands and constantly shouted, "Affliction! Affliction! Affliction! He can _heal _me!"

"Let him go, Naga!" Astrid shouted at the Light Dragon. The tug-of-war went on for a good while, but Naga just finally gave up when he feared he was about to snap Hiccup's body in half. Right when he let the young man go, he, Astrid, Fishlegs, Toothless, Stormfly, and Meatlug went flying backwards. Astrid lost Hiccup, and he rolled a good couple of yards away from her while she, Fishlegs, and the dragons fell on top of each other.

Back in the ocean, the Erlkönig’s eyes glowed up red, and steam puffed out of his nostrils. It literally looked like a volcano was about to erupt from his head. He screeched into the ocean, scaring fish away, as well as a few other Tidal Class dragons whom lived close to where he was. The sound waves traveled throughout the whole ocean and even reached the surface. They were loud enough for the whole village of Berk to hear them. Naga had had enough of all this! He was going to get Hiccup, and once he did, everything would change. From this point on, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III was nothing more than a puppet dangling from the Erlkönig’s strings, whose fate would be decided by the Light Dragon himself.


End file.
